Lewis Hamilton’s time at Mercedes isn’t coming to an end in the way that either party would like.
The Qatar Grand Prix was the scene of Lewis Hamilton’s penultimate race for Mercedes before he joins Ferrari but once again, he couldn’t hook up a complete weekend.
Sprint Race weekends mean teams and drivers only have one hour of practice to prepare their car for the rest of the event and Mercedes appeared to do a decent job.
George Russell managed to qualify on the front row for Saturday’s race before taking his second pole position on the bounce for Sunday’s Grand Prix.
Unfortunately, Hamilton once again couldn’t match his teammate’s one-lap pace.
The 39-year-old started P7 in the Sprint Race and P6 for the Grand Prix, but was nearly half a second slower than his teammate on both occasions.
David Coulthard was worried about Hamilton’s statements after qualifying, but things didn’t get any better during the race.
Commentating on the race for BBC Sport, Formula E driver Sam Bird noticed another problem for Hamilton.
He was complaining on the team radio throughout the race about his lack of pace, wondering if his car had an issue.
Unfortunately, one of the problems Hamilton faced was self-inflicted before got even worse more than halfway through the race when he picked up an unfortunate puncture.
To make matters worse, he was handed a drive-through penalty for speeding in the pit lane and couldn’t add to his points tally.
Sam Bird worried by ‘shocking’ Lewis Hamilton getaway at the Qatar Grand Prix
Hamilton lined up on the third row of the grid alongside his future teammate Charles Leclerc.
Every driver except for Nico Hulkenberg decided to start on the medium tyre, meaning that there wasn’t the intriguing strategy battle that had taken place at other races.
Sadly for Hamilton, he was on the back foot before the race even started.
READ MORE: Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton’s life outside F1 from net worth to family
He launched momentarily before the red lights went out at the start of the race, tried to stop before getting bogged off on the grid.
Hamilton was quickly overtaken by two cars, losing out to Sergio Perez who ran immediately in front of him for much of the race.
The seven-time world champion was handed a five-second penalty for his false start and talking about his difficult getaway, Bird said: “It was a shocking getaway from Lewis Hamilton [at the race start], a really really slow getaway, it looks like a really under-engaged mapping there that caused that.”
Jenson Button noticed a worrying trait on Lewis Hamilton’s onboard camera
Hamilton wasn’t enjoying the way his Mercedes was handling throughout the race, making it difficult for him to make any progress.
Jenson Button spotted Hamilton suffering with keeping the car under control through the corners, with his Silver Arrow running wide onto the gravel in the process.
It sums up how Hamilton has felt about his Mercedes over the past few seasons.
READ MORE: All you need to know about Mercedes F1 Team from team principal to lineage
The punctures he and Carlos Sainz picked up added insult to injury and he lamented on the radio that it was ‘just his luck’ to run over the debris.
It’s been suggested that Hamilton has fallen out of love with Mercedes, and after all the success he’s enjoyed with the team, it’s understandable that he’s not completely happy with the drop-off in performance.
However, his relationship with Mercedes and particularly Toto Wolff will still be very strong, even if he’s racing for one of their rivals.
Leave feedback about this