Lewis Hamilton endured another nightmare in what has been a torrid maiden Ferrari campaign when he qualified 20th and dead last for the Las Vegas Grand Prix. The session started in treacherous conditions with the Las Vegas Strip Circuit drenched from persistent rainfall throughout the afternoon, which only made worse the already challenging low-grip surface that drivers were struggling to handle.
These were precisely the sort of conditions that can catch out big-name drivers, and on this occasion, it was Hamilton who suffered an absolutely torturous session, and one that ended far sooner than he would have wanted.
Whilst Alex Albon managed to avoid smashing his car into the barriers, Hamilton simply couldn’t find any speed whatsoever, leaving him anchored to the bottom of the timesheets and eliminated in the opening part of qualifying.
Astonishingly, this marked the first occasion in Hamilton’s entire Formula 1 career that he has been the slowest qualifier for a Grand Prix on outright pace alone. For Ferrari, it also represented the first time one of their machines has qualified dead last since Giancarlo Fisichella at the 2009 Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
“I couldn’t get the tyres to work,” he dejectedly reported over team radio after being told his session had finished prematurely. And speaking to reporters, including Mirror Sport, in the pen for written media, he said the conditions were “probably” the worst he had ever seen in his long F1 career.
Hamilton said: “That’s definitely the slipperiest it has been, plus I couldn’t get the tyres working. The car was feeling great in FP3 and I honestly thought I was going to do well, I was really excited and thought that finally we would have a good day, but it wasn’t to be.
“[Visibility] was as bad as it gets. I couldn’t see anything – I hit a bollard at one point, I just couldn’t see the corner. It feels horrible, it doesn’t feel good. But all I can do, I’ve just got to let it go and try to come back tomorrow… This year is definitely the hardest year. We’ve got a really good car. It will be really hard to come back from 20th.”
He wasn’t the only big-name driver to suffer a Q1 elimination, with both a Red Bull and a Mercedes also amongst the bottom five – Yuki Tsunoda finishing 19th and joining Hamilton on the back row of the grid, whilst Kimi Antonelli could only muster 17th. Despite hitting the wall due to overzealous throttle use on a wet track, Albon managed to clock a time fast enough for 16th place in his last-ditch effort to avoid the bottom five.
The track was drying out but grip remained elusive and visibility was hampered by spray. Nonetheless, Q2 passed without further shocks, although Oscar Piastri in P10 had a lucky escape from an early exit that would have dealt a severe blow to his dwindling title aspirations.
However, in Q3 he could only muster fifth place while championship leader Lando Norris clinched pole position for McLaren. Max Verstappen secured second fastest while Carlos Sainz gave Williams a boost by nabbing third place on the grid, helping to offset Albon’s disappointment.
- Lando Norris – McLaren
- Max Verstappen – Red Bull
- Carlos Sainz – Williams
- George Russell – Mercedes
- Oscar Piastri – McLaren
- Liam Lawson – Racing Bulls
- Fernando Alonso – Aston Martin
- Isack Hadjar – Racing Bulls
- Charles Leclerc – Ferrari
- Pierre Gasly – Alpine
- Nico Hulkenberg – Sauber
- Lance Stroll – Aston Martin
- Esteban Ocon – Haas
- Oliver Bearman – Haas
- Franco Colapinto – Alpine
- Alex Albon – Williams
- Kimi Antonelli – Mercedes
- Gabriel Bortoleto – Sauber
- Yuki Tsunoda – Red Bull
- Lewis Hamilton – Ferrari
