Abu Dhabi GP: Lewis Hamilton surprised by Mercedes lack of pace during Qualifying
Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes team-mate George Russell qualified fifth and sixth respectively; Max Verstappen took pole as Red Bull and Ferrari outpaced Mercedes at the Yas Marina Circuit; Watch Abu Dhabi GP live on Sky Sports F1 at 1pm on Sunday, with build-up from 11.30am
Sunday 20 November 2022 07:16, UK
Lewis Hamilton admitted he was surprised by Mercedes' lack of pace as he and team-mate George Russell were unable to compete with Red Bull and Ferrari at the final qualifying session of the season in Abu Dhabi.
World champion Max Verstappen took a dominant pole, with Sergio Perez locking out the front row for constructors' champions Red Bull, while Charles Leclerc led team-mate Carlos Sainz as Ferrari locked out the second row.
That left Hamilton to take fifth ahead of his team-mate, bringing Mercedes back down to earth after Russell had capped the Silver Arrows' late-season resurgence by claiming their first victory of the campaign in a one-two at the Sao Paolo Grand Prix last weekend.
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"We thought that this would be a difficult race, but through the weekend so far we weren't looking like we were eight tenths down," Hamilton told Sky Sports F1.
"So it's a bit of a surprise in qualifying to be so far behind them."
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The long straights of the Yas Marina were expected to trouble Mercedes and play into the hands of Red Bull, but the gap appeared bigger in Qualifying than it had done in any of the three practice sessions that preceded it.
Much of Mercedes' early-season problems, following the introduction of new design regulations for the 2022 season, were a result of the W13 suffering extreme bouncing or porpoising, generally in faster sections of the track.
The problem has largely gone away as Mercedes' form has improved during the second half of the year, but Hamilton said it was back with "a vengeance" in Abu Dhabi.
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"Six tenths of that (deficit) is just on the straights," Hamilton said after qualifying almost 0.7s off Verstappen's leading time.
"Otherwise, I gave it everything, and looking forward to the end of tomorrow.
"Bouncing is back with a vengeance, and that's definitely losing us time. Otherwise we're just pretty slow on the straight."
Hamilton also suffered from a brake issue, which team principal Toto Wolff later admitted was a "big" issue that needed solving over the winter.
"I had some brake problems," Hamilton added. "We've had it most of the year, with the brake discs separating at brake temperature.
"So when you hit the brake the car pulls in one direction. Going into Turn 5, the cars pulling to the right and it's a left-hand corner, so it's not ideal."
Wolff: Merc session can go in the toilet
Wolff joked that Mercedes' Qualifying performance belonged "in the toilet" but did express hope that a setup geared more towards Sunday than Saturday would pay off in the race.
Off the back of their dominant display in Brazil, Mercedes arrived in Abu Dhabi with hopes of overhauling a 19-point deficit to Ferrari in the battle for second in the constructors' championship, but the chance of that happening appeared low on Saturday's evidence.
"I just heard today is World Toilet Day, so I think that's one to put in the toilet," Wolff told Sky Sports F1.
"I think we just didn't get the job done. We went backwards and they (Ferrari) did a little step forward.
"We went on a high downforce, high drag concept in order to have a good race car tomorrow, and that was just so slow on the straights that it didn't give anything.
"We had the belief that for tomorrow it's much better to have more downforce to protect the tyres, let's see."
Russell: We can try to jump the Ferraris
Russell, fresh off claiming the first F1 victory of his career in Brazil, admitted it was unlikely Mercedes will be able to challenge Red Bull, but retains hope of getting past the Ferraris.
"I think the performance in Mexico and Brazil was genuine," Russell said of Mercedes' strong recent form. "We probably got the setup in a nicer window than we did here.
"We've probably set our cap up slightly more thinking for tomorrow as opposed to today, but for sure the lap time deficit to Red Bull is pretty substantial and more than we would have liked.
"In terms of grid position, this is probably fair considering the circuit layout and what we were expecting, but we always want more, especially after a one-two.
"I'll go out there tomorrow, I don't really have anything to lose, and enjoy it, fight as hard as I can. I think Red Bull will be slightly out of reach but hopefully we can try to jump the Ferraris.
"I think it's going to be an interesting race. It's going to be very close between a one and two-stop, we might only find out during the race what it's going to be, so it should be fun."
