Lewis Hamilton declared ‘it keeps getting worse’ after finishing 10th at the Las Vegas Grand Prix, confessing that he felt ‘terrible’ after his latest Ferrari setback. The seven-time world champion enjoyed an excellent opening handful of laps but stalled out at the bottom of the point-paying positions, running a lonely race in the midfield.
The 40-year-old qualified dead last for the first time in his career, but gained a spot on the starting grid after Red Bull opted to start Yuki Tsunoda from the pit lane, the Japanese racer having himself qualified on the back row. By the end of a chaotic opening lap, he had climbed to 12th, and the Brit gained further positions to put himself in the top 10, setting up a promising race.
From there, though, Hamilton’s race took a turn for the worse. He struggled to match the pace of Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg in ninth, who was running the same strategy but with tyres a handful of laps older, while Isack Hadjar and Carlos Sainz maintained a gap ahead of the medium-tyre runners.
After crossing the line in 10th, he told Sky Sports F1: “I feel terrible. Terrible. It has been the worst season ever, and no matter how much I try, it just keeps going worse, so yeah.” Asked what he has been trying, the Brit replied: “I’m trying everything. Everything in and out of the car.”
Ferrari are now in a precarious position in the Constructors’ Championship battle. With Max Verstappen scoring a maximum 25-point haul following his sixth win of the year and Mercedes bringing home both of their drivers in the top five, the Maranello-based squad are heading for a P4 finish.
The Brit’s Ferrari team-mate was also not content with his outing in Sin City. Leclerc’s race showed plenty of promise from ninth on the grid as he surged through the midfield, climbing as high as fourth. However, he lost a spot to Oscar Piastri through the pit cycle and missed out on finishing ahead of Kimi Antonelli by just over a tenth of a second after the Italian teenager had five seconds added to his total race time.The Bologna-born starlet, who replaced Hamilton at Mercedes over the winter, enjoyed one of his strongest Sundays in F1, building on the success of Brazil by recovering from 17th on the grid to finish fifth in the final Las Vegas GP classification.
