Lewis Hamilton was left confused by F1’s qualifying format after a strange interview after the Austrian Grand Prix. The Mercedes star was left doubting whether Friday’s qualifying session set the grid for Saturday’s sprint race or Sunday’s Grand Prix.
In previous years, the Friday session has determined the grid for the shorter race but this changed for 2023 with a sprint shootout tomorrow morning. However, Hamilton was left perplexed after a confusing interview left him to question the weekend’s timetable.
The mix-up started after Hamilton was asked if the sprint race would be “damage limitation”. Hamilton replied: “I’m not going to have damage limitation because we haven’t even qualified for it yet.
“Is that the qualifying for the sprint? That’s for Sunday, yeah, exactly. We haven’t even qualified for it yet so there’s no need for damage limitation.
“We will see if we can do better in Sprint qualifying tomorrow, depending on the weather and temperatures. From fifth in the race on Sunday is a good, strong position to start from, last year I was further back and it was a tough race so I’m hoping we can have a better race on Sunday.”
Hamilton will line-up P5 in the Grand Prix after a mixed qualifying session for Mercedes. The seven-time champion was unable to get the better of Ferrari while McLaren’s Lando Norris also pipped him to take a suprise P4.
But, George Russell was knocked out of Q2 after having a lap time deleted for track limits. Hamilton appeared pessimistic for their chances across the rest of the weekend as he admitted the squad’s race runs were unlikely to beat their rivals.
He added: “It’s not P1 but I’ll take it and try and work with it tomorrow. I think our race pace was possibly around third fastest. I think the Red Bulls and Ferraris are quickest or maybe the Astons so maybe we’re fourth. I’m not quite sure exactly we were just trying to focus on getting around as quick as we can today.
“It was a very difficult session, not an easy circuit. Our car in general in the past has not really suited this circuit and it showed it again today. Really tough session but we got through it thank god.”
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