Hamilton: ‘Easy mistake’ led to P18 in China quali

SHANGHAI, China — Lewis Hamilton admitted his own mistake was to blame for his disappointing performance in qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix.

Hamilton will start 18th on Sunday’s grid after getting knocked out of qualifying in the opening session, Q1.

After finishing second in Saturday morning’s sprint race in China, Hamilton said he made car setup changes ahead of qualifying but blamed his Q1 exit on his own mistake at Turn 14.

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“I should have got through easy, it was my mistake,” he said. “I just struggled to stop the car in Turn 14, I just kept locking. Maybe needed one more lap.”

Asked if he was struggling to compartmentalise the difference in his sprint race performance with his qualifying performance, Hamilton added: “It’s not great, but it’s not a mind f— at all. S— happens.

“Sometimes you get it right, sometimes you don’t. This car is on a knife edge, as we know, so it can easily do what we have done. But I’ll have some fun from there.”

Hamilton said he made different setup changes to teammate George Russell, who qualified eighth for Sunday’s race, during the gap between the sprint race and qualifying.

“We made massive changes going into qualifying, so George decided to go one way and it was much different to what we had — we were both pretty much the same before.

“I went this other direction just to see if we can find something. It didn’t feel disastrous, I just couldn’t stop the car in Turn 14.”