Lewis Hamilton and Toto Wolff explain “couldn’t go faster, mate” radio admission in F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix qualifying
Hamilton will begin the race from 10th, with teammate George Russelꦓl third, behind Charles Leclerc and Max Verstappen.
Hamilton’s disappointing Q2 ไelimination came amid the challenging tyre and temperature condition♍s on the brand-new track.
“It rem♉ains a mystery,” Mercedes team pr🌠incipal Toto Wolff reacted to Sky.
“Having the tyres in the right window and you can see the difference. We saw it in Free Practice 3. Very dif♏fꦬicult to understand.”
Wolff explained Hamilton’s stark radio cl⛄aim that he couldn’t go faster: “Yeah, because he didn’t have any more grip.
“Wဣe are really talking about four or five degrees of temperature difference b🤪etween grip and no grip.
“You ca♒n see some teams - the McLarens - who play in the front and are out in Q1. And the Ferraris put in stunning laps, both of them half a second ahead of everybody else.”
A disappoint♛ed Hamilton described his feeling in the W14: “Not that great.
“Yesterday was🦄 better, we were relatively competitive. We made changes overnight.
“Q3 was poor🌱, it put me on the back foot and I was just trying to recover, basically, in qualifying which is never the place to do so.
“I struggled with grip. The car just wasn’t working for me. It🍨’s definitely difficult when you can’t even get through Q2.”
Hamilton predicted how his race will go: “My guess i🦩s as good as yours.
“One, with the car. Also, tyre graining. E👍veryone had tyre graining, we had massive tyre graining. We had mor𒀰e tyre graining in Q3.
“How you manage it - where you pu𓆏sh, where you don’t - will be key. It’s impressive watching Ferrari todayꦍ, it’s a quick car.”
Russell beginning the grand prix from🍌 the second row will at least give 🍎Mercedes some hope.
Wolff explained what Russell must do to fight the Red 🌟Bull and Ferrari in front of him: “I think Versཧtappen and Leclerc are going to be very fast.
“He needs to manage [the tyres] from there, be patient until the worst part of the tyre haꦅs gone.”
And Wolff mentioned the impressive qualifying from Williams, the Mercedes customer team run by his ex-protege James Vow𓄧les.
“Yeah, it’s great. Williams, we know they put a lot of heat into th🦹eir tyres☂.
“On tracks that are cold and fast, they’re right there. This is another t☂estament today.”
James was a sports journalist at Sky Sports for a decade covering everything from ൲American sports, to football, to F1.
