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Lewis Hamilton Faces Familiar Qualifying Struggle in Baku: Tyres Leave Him Cold on Azerbaijan Grid
"Lewis Hamilton echoes his usual Saturday sentiment" – Hamilton voices a recurring "tyre issues" grievance
Lewis Hamilton's perspective on Azerbaijan Grand Prix qualifying: "It's the usual scenario every Saturday."
Lewis Hamilton experienced recurring issues at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, facing difficulties in warming up his tyres during the qualifying rounds.
In Baku, Hamilton managed to clinch only the seventh spot on the grid, trailing his Mercedes teammate George Russell by 0.4 seconds.
This extended Hamilton's struggles during Saturdays, resulting in him now being outperformed by his teammate, Russell, in their direct comparisons.
For only the second occasion since 2014 in his Formula 1 career, he has been outqualified by a teammate.
Hamilton kept his analysis succinct following the qualifying round.
He informed Sky Sports, "It's the usual Saturday routine for us."
When questioned about the challenges he encountered, Hamilton responded, "It's the same scenario that unfolds every Saturday."
"Yesterday, the car performed incredibly well, it was truly impressive. I genuinely believed it had the potential to secure a spot in at least the second row for today's race. However, today, we faced challenges as the tyres just weren't cooperating at all throughout the day."
Sky Sports analyst Bernie Collins believes Hamilton was taken by surprise when the track temperature fell.
She mentioned that although Mercedes experimented with various approaches during their outlaps, Hamilton might be "more susceptible" to changes in the track conditions.
Collins mentioned, "Being four-tenths behind George, he's likely quite disappointed since you're always measured against your teammate first."
"Indeed, the situation has evolved, and throughout the session, he voiced numerous grievances regarding the temperature of the tyres. It appears there was some strategy involved with the outlap and navigating through the traffic they encountered. They weren't able to fully synchronize everything."
Achieving that in this qualification round is challenging. Especially during Q3, there was a significant drop in the track temperature.
"I believe that might be what surprised Lewis – he could be more susceptible to that, possibly more so than George, who managed to handle it."
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