Disaster for Lewis Hamilton, his worst qualifying since Interlagos 2017: “The car is terrible”. Lewis Hamilton was eliminated in Q1 during qualifying for USA GP.

A Saturday to forget for Lewis Hamilton in Austin. The seven-time world champion was knocked out in Q1 during the United States Grand Prix qualifying session at the 5.513-kilometre Circuit of The Americas. A mistake exiting turn 12 left the Mercedes driver in an unexpected 19th position, which will move up to 18th on the grid due to Liam Lawson’s penalty.

This marks Lewis Hamilton’s worst qualifying performance with the current generation of cars. To find a more negative Saturday, one must go back to Brazil 2017 at the Interlagos circuit, when the Briton crashed early in Q1 and started from the back of the grid.

It was Lewis Hamilton’s second Q1 elimination of the season, the first happening in China (18th), where he still managed to finish in the points (ninth).

Lewis Hamilton’s comments :
Sir Lewis Hamilton, who holds the record for most pole positions in Austin (three), spoke to Sky Sport F1, hinting at a potential issue with his Mercedes: “There’s no explanation. In the Sprint we had some sort of failure from the formation lap on the front suspension. I had that throughout the Sprint race. That made the balance really difficult. We changed a couple of things which pushed us in the direction in what we would have done yesterday. The car was terrible, a nightmare in qualifying. I should probably start in the pit lane, otherwise I won’t be going anywhere from where I am.” – the future Ferrari driver admitted at the end of the qualifying session for the 2024 Formula 1 United States Grand Prix in Austin.