In the Miami sprint race, both Lewis Hamilton and his teammate George Russell faced disappointment during qualifying on Friday. They didn’t make it past the second segment of qualifying, known as SQ2. Hamilton, the seven-time world champion, expressed that there were no special reasons for their performance. He believes it accurately reflects where Mercedes stands in Formula 1 right now.
Hamilton stated, “I feel like we extracted everything from the car.” He acknowledged being more than half a second behind the pole position, indicating Mercedes’ current pace deficit. Despite a promising first practice session, where Mercedes seemed competitive, their pace dropped in qualifying. Hamilton noted, “The car felt really good in P1,” but by P2, it was significantly slower. He accepted this as the current pace of their car.
Looking ahead to the sprint race starting from 12th on the grid, Hamilton expressed caution about expecting significant progress. He remarked that Miami’s circuit doesn’t offer many overtaking opportunities, making it challenging to move up the field.
Russell shared similar sentiments, suggesting that Mercedes struggled with the medium tires required for the initial qualifying segments. While the soft tires showed promising performance during practice, the medium tires didn’t suit their car well. Russell emphasized the need for improvements overnight to address their qualifying difficulties.
Both drivers expressed confidence in their ability to progress during the sprint race. However, they acknowledged the challenge of competing with cars ahead when starting from a disadvantaged position.
