Lewis Hamilton struggled through another underwhelming qualifying session on Saturday afternoon.
Lewis Hamilton attributed his frustrating Azerbaijan Grand Prix qualifying session to it being the ‘same Saturday as always’. The Brit could only manage a P7 starting grid slot after an underwhelming performance.
With George Russell placing his Mercedes machine in P5, the 26-year-old wrapped up the intra-team qualifying head-to-head battle with seven races to spare.
When asked about his performance in the media area, Hamilton didn’t seem too happy. He brushed off Sky Sports F1 reporter Ted Kravitz’s questions by saying it was just like any other Saturday.
Hamilton was asked about the challenges he experienced, and he said that on Saturday, he faced the same issues as usual. He thought he could have done well in qualifying, but on the day of the race, his tires did not perform well at all.
Hamilton and Russell were not satisfied with how they performed, but it’s a good sign for the Silver Arrows that all the top teams were competing for pole position. During the qualifying session, all four of the top teams had opportunities to take the top spot, but Charles Leclerc held onto it in the end.
The driver from Monaco, who recently won the Italian Grand Prix, secured his fourth straight pole position at the Baku City Circuit by setting an impressive final lap time.
Oscar Piastri will start on the front row next to him, but Lando Norris didn’t make it to Q3 because of a badly-timed yellow flag that caused him to be eliminated in Q1.
The outcome of the race could have a very negative effect on the British driver’s chances of winning the championship as Max Verstappen will be starting the Azerbaijan Grand Prix from the sixth position, which is 11 places ahead of his competitor.