Lewis Hamilton believes he is “definitely not fast enough anymore” after enduring another disappointing qualifying performance ahead of the Qatar Grand Prix.
In what is Hamilton’s penultimate weekend as a Mercedes driver before his switch to Ferrari, he qualified seventh for the sprint race at the Lusail International Circuit.
He recorded a time 0.399 seconds slower than teammate George Russell, who will start the race in second behind McLaren’s Lando Norris.
It acts as the latest qualifying setback in a year in which Hamilton has been consistently outperformed by Russell over a single lap, sparking a damning admission from the seven-time world champion.
“Same as every other qualifying - not that great,” Hamilton said. “I’m just slow. Same every weekend. Car felt relatively decent. You know, no issues. Not really much more to say.”
Hamilton is the most successful driver in the sport’s history and boasts the all-time record for pole positions in F1, leading the pack with 104.
However, Hamilton has found himself chasing Russell’s tail more and more over the past two seasons, out-qualifying his teammate only six times across all competitive qualifying sessions in 22 races.
Russell had never previously out-qualified Hamilton before partnering with him at Mercedes in 2022.
When put to Hamilton in his post-session interview that his qualifying struggles could not be about him, he replied: “Who knows? I’m definitely not fast anymore.”
The sprint race in Qatar is set to begin at 2pm GMT on Saturday, with a further qualifying session scheduled later that day for Sunday’s grand prix.
Lamenting his poor starting position, Hamilton does not see a route to victory in the sprint - instead hoping that Russell can bring home a result for Mercedes.
“When you are always back where I am it makes it almost impossible to compete for wins from there,” Hamilton added. “But that’s the sprint. I’ll do what I can.
“The positive is the car is fast and George should be able to shoot for pole tomorrow.”
