Hamilton: Each F1 weekend 'is a rescue' for Mercedes

A downbeat Lewis Hamilton admitted after his Q2 exit in Friday's qualifying session at Imola that "each weekend is a rescue" for the Mercedes F1 team.

Hamilton just barely made the Q2 cut and was lingering in 13th place in the second segment of qualifying when a red flag halted the session but allowed for rain clouds to move in and destroy any chances of improvement for those outside the top-10, a fate that also befell George Russel who concluded Q2 in 11th position.

The shortfall marked the second time this season that Hamilton has failed to reach Q3, having been eliminated as early as Q1 in Saudi Arabia. It was also the first time since Japan in 2012 that Mercedes failed to put a car in the final segment of qualifying.

"It wasn't a great session, naturally it's disappointing," commented the seven-time world champion.

"[You] come here with optimism and you know everyone is working really hard at the factory, and things just don't come together.

"It's disappointing. I think we underperformed as a team today. There are things that we should have done that we didn't do."

Depending on track conditions, Russell and Hamilton will have an opportunity in Saturday's Sprint event to move up the order and secure a spot on the grid for Sunday's race among the top-ten.

"We'll work as hard as we can to move up in the sprint race," he added. "It's going to be a difficult race, but hopefully tomorrow is better weather-wise, and who knows, maybe we'll move our way forwards.

"We'll just keep working hard. Each weekend is a rescue."

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After Hamilton had climbed out of his W13 at the end of Q2, what appeared like a heated discussion ensued between the Briton and Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff.

When asked to shed light on the moment, Hamilton said: "It's all internal stuff, I’d rather not share that. We’ll just keep working. It is what it is."

On the other side of the Mercedes garage, Russell was uncertain the Sprint race would allow the team to gain ground on its rivals.

"It's going to be a bit tricky going into the race tomorrow," Russell said.

"Usually in these sprint races, not so much happens. It'll be interesting with these new cars if we can follow a bit closer.

"But I don't think there's enough laps with enough degradation for us to take our advantage where we're generally stronger compared to our current rivals, which this weekend aren't the top two teams.

"So let's see what we can do. We've got Sunday as well. [We] can only go up."

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