Categories: F1 News, Reports and Race ResultsMercedes

Hamilton feels 'helpless' after another setback

Lewis Hamilton says he feels "helpless" after being hit by another reliability problem during qualifying for the Russian Grand Prix.

Poor starts in both Australia and Bahrain cost Hamilton the chance of victory, while he was then hit by an MGU-H problem in China which resulted in him starting from the back of the grid. The same problem occurred at the end of Q2 in Russia to leave Hamilton in tenth place and the defending champion says there's nothing he can do about the difficult run.

"You’re almost helpless at some points, we’ve worked so hard - with my mechanics and my engineers - to get the car in a great position this weekend," Hamilton said. "We had the great pace once again and this happens to us all unexpectedly.

"I feel helpless for my guys because there’s not really much I can do to uplift them and there’s not really much they can do to uplift me because it’s already happened. The goal is moving further and further away in the distance, I’m doing everything I can do … There’s nothing else I can do."

Team-mate Nico Rosberg has taken full advantage and won all three races so far this season, while he will also start from pole in Russia. Despite the growing gap between the two drivers, Hamilton says he's not getting the feeling it is not his year.

"I’m not really thinking about that at the moment, there’s still a long way to go. Once again I’m always trying to turn negatives into positives. As I said at the last race, this is a big challenge and the challenge is becoming greater, and every challenge is an opportunity to rise. I quite like that approach and that idea.

"Even when it seems like it’s the darkest of days there’s always some light there and as long as you focus on that there will be a brighter day ahead. That’s how I think and how I feel, and that’s going to help me forwards tonight."

REPORT: Rosberg takes pole as ERS problem hits Hamilton

AS IT HAPPENED: Russian Grand Prix - Qualifying

Exclusive Valtteri Bottas Q&A

Romain Grosjean column: Haas brought back down to earth

Keep up to date with all the F1 news via Facebook and Twitter

Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.