Lewis Hamilton was consigned to P12 after suffering a raft of setbacks in the Qatar Grand Prix, including two time penalties.
The seven-time World Champion was handed a time penalty at the beginning of the race for a false start, in which he appeared to creep forward moments before the five red lights extinguished.
Hamilton was later handed a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pit lane, after needing to pit due to picking up a puncture earlier in the race.
The penalties led to the Mercedes driver dropping out of the points, with an irate Hamilton later pleading with his engineer to retire him from the race before they advised not to stop as they would pick up a five-second time penalty in Abu Dhabi for incorrectly serving their drive through.
Commentating on the race for Sky Sports F1, former F1 driver Jenson Button said he did something ‘you never see’ normally from Hamilton.
Jenson Button said ‘you never see’ start infractions from Lewis Hamilton
It was a race riddled with rookie mistakes from an experienced driver like Hamilton, with the start infringement being the most obvious of the two time penalties.
According to the stewards decision document, Hamilton tripped the FIA transponder which indicated that he moved before the red lights went out. He ended up losing ground and apologised to the team, effectively admitting to the error in the eyes of the stewards.
“It looked like he went a tiny bit early and then backed off. Obviously, if you jump the start, you jump the start. But it looks like he reacted to the light bulb a tiny bit early and then lost a lot of ground to Checo and Fernando,” said Button.
After looking at the replay again, Button remarked: “You never see that, ever from Lewis. Just shows you how much of a tough weekend it has been.”
Has Lewis Hamilton driven his last Mercedes race?
The tone of Hamilton throughout the weekend has been one of dejection knowing that he no longer has the support of his Mercedes team.
Jenson Button was concerned that Hamilton might have driven his last race with Mercedes in Qatar, with the possibility of Andrea Kimi Antonelli getting an early debut in Abu Dhabi.
This was largely in part due to the ‘soul-destroying’ weekend he suffered at the wheel of the W15, while teammate George Russell could compete at the front.
However, such a scenario is unlikely to play out given that Mercedes has blocked Hamilton from taking part in the post-season test with Ferrari because of his remaining commitments.
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