Lewis Hamilton was second quickest in qualifying for the Sprint in Shanghai, but will start the Chinese Grand Prix itself all the way back in 18th after a wretched session
Lewis Hamilton suffered a wretched Chinese Grand Prix qualifying session and qualified just 18th for the Shanghai race.
He was second quickest in Sprint qualifying on Friday and hoped to repeat the trick when setting the grid for the main event. Instead, he made a mistake and lost a lot of time in one corner on his final flying lap which proved fatal to his hopes of another front-row start.
As a result, he didn’t improve on his time when the track was ramping up and others were making gains. By the time everyone had finished their final laps of Q1, Hamilton was marooned down in 18th place.
He asked race engineer Peter Bonnington if he had made it through and apologised to his Mercedes team after being told that he hadn’t. In commentary, Nico Rosberg said it would be “seriously painful” for his former team-mate.
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