‘Messed up big time’ – Lewis Hamilton has nightmare final qualifying for Mercedes as he crashes out in Q1 in Abu Dhabi

LEWIS HAMILTON’S final race weekend for Mercedes started in the worst manner possible after he was eliminated from the first qualifying session.

Hamilton is racing his final weekend with the Silver Arrows after a glittering 11-year career, but declared “yeah, messed up big time” as he scored his lowest-ever qualifying result around Abu Dhabi for Sunday’s season finale.

AP

It was his lowest ever qualifying result in Abu Dhabi[/caption]

Getty

Lewis Hamilton was eliminated in Q1 of his final race weekend with Mercedes[/caption]

The 39-year-old would have been looking to end his Mercedes career on a high before his blockbuster move to Ferrari next year.

However, Hamilton came unstuck around the Yas Marina circuit as a bollard got stuck under his car in the final few corners of his lap, causing him to lack the speed to escape the drop zone.

The Brit had unluckily followed Haas star Kevin Magnussen – who is also on his last race with his team – through a corner after he had knocked a bollard down after cutting a corner.

And his time of 1:12.887 was only enough for P18 as he missed out on Q2 by just 0.093s.

Speaking on the team radio following the lap, Hamilton said: “Yeah, messed that up big time guys. F***ing hell.

“That was bad man, jesus.”

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff replied: “Yeah s*** Lewis that was bad.” 

His P18 in qualifying means Hamilton will start ahead of only Alpine rookie Jack Doohan and Williams driver Franco Colapinto.

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Meanwhile, he will have Zhou Guanyu and Alex Albon of Sauber and Williams respectively directly ahead of him.

After winning six world drivers titles with Mercedes, Hamilton’s final six races with the team have seen him score three Q1 eliminations.

It took 171 races for Hamilton to be eliminated three times from Q1 before this, while it also meant Hamilton had lost 19-5 in qualifying results against team-mate George Russell this season.

Reacting to his elimination afterwards, Hamilton told BBC 5 Live: “You couldn’t make it up, you really couldn’t, but it is what it is. We gave it everything, I gave it everything, the car was in a good place.

“Every practice session went well, I was ahead of my team-mate all weekend but when we got to qualifying I think as a team we didn’t perform in terms of the timing.

“I was the last car on track and ran out of time ultimately, and then I got the bollard at the end which went under the car and I lost all downforce so it couldn’t have gone worse really.”

On it being his last weekend with Mercedes, he added: “Every day and more than ever I’ve just tried to be really present, just trying to take it in because it’s the last time we will be racing and driving in Silver Arrows and it’s all my wins, all my success through my life so every moment is a special moment and I would have loved to get a podium for the guys this weekend and it just didn’t work out.”

He also told Sky Sports F1: “Just my luck but it’s OK.

“I’ve tried, we’ve tried so hard with the setup… we thought maybe a podium was possible this weekend.

“To go from P1, P2 [in practice] to then be in 18th, it definitely changes the look into the weekend but I’m trying to be present, the team have been great.

“My hopes are high, it is what it is, I’ll try and come back.”

He added: “I don’t feel the pain. I think for me, I’ve just been very present, been enjoying every moment, getting the car in a good place.

“The timing for that (bollard) to get under the car was just nuts. I don’t have any emotions, I’m pretty chill. It was an unfortunate session, with the bollard under the car…

“That’s (the final sector) where we’ve struggled the most as a team this weekend. The car was feeling really good in general. P3, I was third.

“So honestly I thought we could be fighting for a podium, and my race pace was second-quickest. But it wasn’t meant to be.”

Merecedes boss Wolff later apolgised to Hamilton and said the dismal showing was a collective mistake.

He said: “I just need to apologise to Lewis, also to everyone in the team that worked so hard in making it a great end for him.

“He was the quicker guy with that kind of set-up that we choose on the car, it was an experiment for next year.

“And we totally let him down. An idiotic mistake of not going earlier. Inexcusable. Inexcusable. I’m… rarely have been so down about what has happened.

“Maybe summarises the last races we had with him, but this is the worst part of it, because… it was just idiotic.”

Hamilton also opened up on the annual drivers dinner earlier this week, saying: “Really, really happy that we’ve been doing that.

“I asked Seb (Vettal), asked the guys to get together for Seb’s leaving, that was really special, and we had the best time, so we set it up this year, and I hope they had a great time.

“It was really funny obviously, George arriving, but it was alright.”

Despite his qualifying horror show, Hamilton will start ahead of future Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc after he was eliminated in Q2 and will take a 10-place grid drop for taking a new battery.

Leclerc will start P19 rather than P20 due to a five-place engine penalty for Franco Colapinto.

This will bump Hamilton up to P17 for the race barring any further penalties across the grid.

McLaren claimed a 1-2 qualifying result with Lando Norris on pole to give them a huge advantage in the constructors championship title race over Ferrari.