Hamilton Q1 effort thwarted by 'undriveable' Mercedes car

Lewis Hamilton says set-up issues that made his Mercedes car "undriveable" thwarted his efforts in Saturday's qualifying session in Jeddah.

The seven-time world champion was pushed down to P16 by Aston Martin's Lance Stroll in the closing stages of Q1, forcing his elimination from the first segment of qualifying for the first time since 2017.

Speaking to F1 TV, Hamilton pointed to a lack of balance of his W13 Silver Arrow as the root cause of his elimination.

"Just struggled with the balance of the car, and not where I want to be," he said.

"It's something in the set-up. It was looking good in FP3 and we tried to progress in a similar direction.

"Maybe we went too far and then the car was undriveable. It's so nervous."

• Read also: Schumacher uninjured after massive shunt in Jeddah qualifying

The Briton was bracing for a difficult Sunday.

"I've got the same car as I had in qualifying, so I don't anticipate moving that far forwards," he said. "But I'll give it everything."

However, in a bid to improve Hamilton's fortunes for tomorrow's race, Mercedes could opt to start the Briton from the pitlane to circumvent Parc Fermé rules to allow its crews to make wholesale changes to the #44 car's set-up.

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