Lewis Hamilton's hopes for a strong showing in qualifying for the Saudi Arabian GP were dashed by the persistent bouncing issue plaguing his Mercedes W15.
On Thursday, Hamilton's frustrations with his car's handling were evident. He lobbied for a setup change, which resulted in the team ditching the W15’s Jeddah-specific low-drag rear wing and reverting to a larger element.
In FP3, this change appeared to provide better stability in the track’s high-speed sections although the trade-off inevitably reduced straight-line speed.
But in qualifying, Hamilton struggled to tame the W15’s bouncing problem and to find a perfect rhythm, eventually progressing through Q1 and Q2 in a lowly 11th and 10th place respectively to end up P8 in the final top-ten shootout, one spot behind his Mercedes teammate George Russell.
“It wasn't a really good qualifying at all," the seven-time F1 world champion commented at the end of the day.
"I really struggled with the car yesterday, and then FP3 I was really much happier with the car, with a slightly bigger wing, but I was losing two-tenths in the straight.
"But I gained some stability back, and I was much, much happier, and I thought I would carry that into qualifying.
"But unfortunately, the bouncing is still there. It makes it very, very, very difficult to push through that for a session. That's why we were so slow in that first sector."
©Mercedes
Despite his car’s frustrating trait, Hamilton reckons that Mercedes’ new design is a definite step forward compared to last year’s W14 machine.
"I think if you took that away the car is really so much better than last year, in every area," he said.
"It's just that it's really causing us some real big trouble. In the second or third sector, we were a lot closer, and we're able to be closer through some of all the rest of the corners, but just that first section – it's the same as last year."
Hamilton made clear that he won’t attempt to force any issues in Saturday’s race, all too aware of Jeddah’s reputation for throwing up its fair share of drama and incidents.
“I mean, jeez, qualified ninth and eighth, so I've had a horrendous two qualifying sessions," he admitted. "I think tomorrow is just about being cool. And I'm just going to try and enjoy myself tomorrow.
"It is what it is, but we're not fighting for the front, for the win. So try and bag as many points as I can tomorrow."
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