‘Can’t get much worse’ than qualifying last – Hamilton

After qualifying last for the Las Vegas Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton declared that it “can’t get much worse than that.”

The seven-time champion’s performance marked his first time in his 19-year Formula 1 career to last on pure pace.

In the wet, where he has already won some of his best victories, Hamilton struggled to keep pace throughout the entire first session, finishing 2.301 seconds behind team-mate Charles Leclerc.

Hamilton, who won the sprint race in China in March, is yet to come off the podium for Ferrari.

He responded, “I don’t really have words for it.”

It’s obvious that it’s not good enough. I was having a lot of understeer, and I believe one of my front brakes had been glazed, making it difficult to stop it in the corners.

In a third practice session that started wet but ended with the drivers using slick tires, Hamilton was fifth.

However, he was uncompetitive right away in the wet conditions of qualifying, especially since extreme wet tires were the best option for both of the first two sessions.

He had to back off in the final sector despite having enough time on his last lap to make it through the second session.

He missed the final lap because he had to pass the checkered flag shortly after the session had ended.

I had to get a lift because “I got yellow flags in the last corner, and when I came in the line there were red,” Hamilton said.

The first set of tires didn’t work for us, and I just struggled to generate the heat in the tires for some reason because the terrain was so slippery.