Toto Wolff has apologised publicly to Lewis Hamilton after his Mercedes team made an ‘idiotic’ mistake that forced him to exit qualifying for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix early.
The seven-time world champion was eliminated at the end of Q1 after failing to improve his final lap time, leaving him 18th fastest. Hamilton was sent out late by his Mercedes team to complete his final run but was caught up in a lot of traffic, with a mix of cars completing their runs and on slow-down laps.
Hamilton was initially looking like he was about to get promoted to Q2, but his session went from bad to worse when Kevin Magnussen went off track to avoid him and hit the bollard at Turn 14.
The bollard made its way onto the track and was collected by Hamilton, who had it scraping along his floor for the final two corners of his lap. He would go on to miss out by 0.147s, with Martin Brundle issuing an ‘ouch’ reaction to Hamilton’s early exit.
Discussing the session on Sky Sports F1, Wolff offered an apology to Hamilton after they appeared to make a mistake in their timings.
Toto Wolff apologises to Lewis Hamilton for poor timing in Abu Dhabi Grand Prix qualifying
Mercedes left their final runs in Q1 late as the track evolution improved lap times significantly. That left Hamilton vulnerable, as his first lap was not good enough to get through alone.
Wolff believed that even with the bollard stuck under Hamilton’s car, it was wrong of Mercedes to risk sending Hamilton out on track so late when it was clear they had the pace to get through.
“An idiotic mistake of not going earlier. Inexcusable. I have really been down about what has happened, maybe is summarises the last few races, but this is really the worst part of it because it was just idiotic,” said Wolff.
“Maybe without the bollard it would’ve worked, but you don’t risk so much in a Q1 where we had the pace to easily make it out. Then our most valuable racing driver ever gets out in Q1 because you make a mistake. That’s just, it doesn’t ruin our legacy, but I can only say sorry to him.”
Lewis Hamilton hopeful for comeback to send off Mercedes career
Hamilton and Mercedes conclude their 11-year partnership in Abu Dhabi, which has seen them win six world championships and 84 race victories.
The Mercedes driver is expected to start from 16th place on the grid with the penalties from both Williams drivers and Charles Leclerc applied.
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Despite being quick in the long runs during FP2, Hamilton knows it will be a tough race given how difficult overtaking can be around the Yas Marina Circuit.
He will be hopeful that he can give his successful partnership the send-off it deserves in Abu Dhabi, ahead of his highly anticipated move to Ferrari next year.
