Lewis Hamilton bemoans ‘horrible’ sprint race and offers worrying Brazilian GP prediction
Lewis Hamilton was unable to move forward in the sprint race at Interlagos, leaving him frustrated after the session.
Lewis Hamilton has predicted a 'long afternoon' at the Brazilian Grand Prix on Sunday after he was forced to settle for an underwhelming P7 finish in Saturday's sprint race.
Things were looking positive for the seven-time world champion at the end of the opening lap after he squeezed past Sergio Perez to claim a grasp on P4, but Mercedes' inferior race pace was soon on display.
Team-mate George Russell also suffered as the race continued, dropping significant time to Max Verstappen, Lando Norris and Checo, although it was Hamilton who struggled the most of the Silver Arrows' duo.
Hamilton went on to lose more positions as the race entered its closing act, dropping behind Charles Leclerc and even AlphaTauri's Yuki Tsunoda as he crossed the line in seventh place.
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Speaking to Sky Sports F1 about his struggles, Hamilton said: "It was horrible. It was not enjoyable whatsoever. I had a good start and then after that just struggled with the balance.
"A lot of understeer, then snap oversteer, and I was just fighting the car from very early on. Then I had no tyres in the end. I don't really know how I'm going to fix that for tomorrow."
Hamilton was then asked what could be possible for himself and the No.44 crew on Sunday, replying: "It's going to be a long afternoon, that's for sure. I can only assume I've got the setup wrong. It is what it is.
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"I'll fight as hard as I can tomorrow, but we won't be winning that's for sure. I'll just be trying to see if I can manage the tyres better tomorrow."
Russell also offered some insight into Mercedes' struggles, contextualising their lack of pace relative to Ferrari and AlphaTauri. He explained: "Unfortunately it’s always down to these tyres and getting them in the sweet spot, especially these last two weekends.
"Nobody’s really understood when it’s working for them, and they’ve found a lot of performance. Like Ferrari in qualifying last week, then we found our pace in the race and suddenly it wasn’t there for us today when we expected quite a lot."