Sky Sports F1 pundit Anthony Davidson believes that a bollard lodged under Lewis Hamilton’s Ferrari could have caused the Brit’s shock Q1 elimination on Saturday. The seven-time world champion was 20th and slowest in qualifying at the Las Vegas Grand Prix.
Hamilton and Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc both struggled through the first part of qualifying on the Las Vegas Strip, and when the chequered flag dropped, Ferrari’s British racer was bottom of the timing tower.
Hamilton’s qualifying result was remarkable on paper, but there were some extenuating circumstances for the Brit to contend with. As he navigated his warm-up lap, the Brit collected a bollard at Turn 14, as pointed out by Sky Sports F1 pundit Davidson.
“This was with two minutes to go,” Davidson explained while reviewing Hamilton’s onboard footage. “He’s got, I think this is [Alex] Albon in front of him, but I don’t know where he was placing the car, but he seems to have just run over this cone.
“So I’ll just wind it back again… maybe he’s looking down at his dash or something – this clip has literally just come in here – I just want to see, is he looking down? He’s obviously trying to position, but randomly hits the cone, and, ah, does it get stuck under his car?
“So that could explain why there was this lack of performance, probably, towards the end for him. So he starts to build up that penultimate lap with two minutes to go, but if that cone had found its way under the car – and the car did not look good, I must say, through Turn 17.”
Hamilton was asked about the bollard incident by Sky Sports F1 in the media pen, but the 40-year-old, who was not in a talkative mood after his latest qualifying disaster, couldn’t shine any light on the situation. “I couldn’t really see much, to be honest,” he replied.
The Stevenage-born racer was also asked about his final lap. In the commentary booth, it was believed that Hamilton aborted his last attempt in Q1, but the Ferrari star believed that he had failed to make it over the line before the countdown clock ticked to zero. “I mean, as I came across the line, it was red, so it wasn’t a miscommunication from our side,” he said.
Speaking to the media afterwards, Hamilton delved deeper into his recent struggles. The F1 legend has failed to score a podium in his first 21 starts for Ferrari, and his chances of doing so on Sunday in Las Vegas are now next to none.
“It feels horrible,” he confessed. “It doesn’t feel good. But all I can do, I’ve just got to let it go and try to come back tomorrow… This year is definitely the hardest year. We’ve got a really good car. It will be really hard to come back from 20th.”
