Lewis Hamilton makes Mercedes demand after new F1 low in Miami GP qualifying

06 May 2023 , 22:27

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Lewis Hamilton suffered a dismal qualifying session in Miami (Image: Sky Sports)

Lewis Hamilton called upon his Mercedes team to make better decisions after the Brit failed to make the top 10 in Miami Grand Prix qualifying.

The Brit has always gone well on a Saturday in the US, but his streak ended on the newly-resurfaced tarmac round the Hard Rock Stadium. From the very beginning his session was disrupted by a whack against the wall in Q1 as he swerved to avoid hitting the back of Kevin Magnussen.

Hamilton survived that first part of the session but would not be so lucky in Q2. Sent out at the very back of the queue for his final run in that session, he was forced to wait longer than he would have liked at the final corner to start his lap and so his tyres were cold.

Speaking to Sky Sports after the session, he suggested his team should have known better. He said: "That last one, I was the last of the pack and I tried to get temperatures into the tyres but then because I was at the back of the queue at the last corner, I just lost all temperature in the tyres. I couldn't do the lap."

"When you're fast, you can sit back and be more relaxed. You can go at the last minute and take your time. You know it's likely you're easily going to make it into Q3.

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"We know that it was very hard and there was a 50/50 chance we would get into Q3 so we need to be better with our timing. But anyway, it's done. I'll just try to get my head down tomorrow and see what I can do from 13th."

Mercedes set the fastest two times in the first practice session of the weekend, a result which turned some heads. But the next two sessions showed that it wasn't necessarily indicative of the Silver Arrows suddenly having a much more competitive car.

Instead, they knew that qualifying was likely to be tough for them. And so it proved with Hamilton only able to go 13th fastest and George Russell sixth on the grid – and it might have been worse for the latter had Charles Leclerc's crash not prevented Max Verstappen from setting a representative time.

Hamilton said: "It was a difficult session and we're not that quick, you know? So we really needed perfect laps. It was difficult for us to get into a rhythm. At the beginning I had that issue with the car going slow in the last corner but I had a couple of decent moments in there where I thought the car was good. But we were at the back end of the top 10."

Daniel Moxon