Hamilton weighing up pit lane start after ‘demoralising’ Q1 exit at Circuit of The Americas

Three-time Circuit of The Americas pole-sitter Lewis Hamilton was left to rue what he described as a “demoralising” Q1 exit in qualifying for the 2024 United States Grand Prix, with the Mercedes man suggesting he would consider taking a power unit change and resultant pit lane start penalty to try and salvage a result on Sunday.

Earlier on Saturday, Hamilton had reported an issue on his upgraded Mercedes W15 on the formation lap of the Sprint, in which he finished P6.

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But the seven-time champion believed that the issue had continued to cause balance problems on his car into qualifying, with Hamilton a shock knock-out in Q1, finishing P19 and out-qualified by his former team mate Valtteri Bottas in a Kick Sauber.

Asked if he was disappointed not to have capitalised on the promising pace he’d shown at points this weekend, Hamilton replied “well I’m P19, so…” before adding: “[The car] was terrible in quali. It’s definitely demoralising.

“In the Sprint we had some sort of failure on the formation lap on the front suspension, and I had that throughout the Sprint race,” Hamilton went on. “That made the balance really difficult. We did change a couple of things, just in the direction of what we would have done yesterday, but the car was a nightmare today in quali… Just a very inconsistent balance, and no grip.”

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Looking ahead to Sunday, Hamilton added pragmatically that he may consider changing power unit elements, telling Sky Sports F1: “I should probably start in the pit lane, otherwise I won’t be going anywhere from where I am.”

Mercedes’ pain was added to, meanwhile, when Hamilton’s team mate George Russell crashed out of Q3, leaving him P6 on the grid for Sunday’s race – with Russell having also reportedly damaged the new parts on his Mercedes W15.