Lewis Hamilton mentioned “you could not make it up” after he was eradicated from the primary a part of qualifying in his remaining race for Mercedes on the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
The seven-time champion, who’s shifting to Ferrari subsequent season after 12 years of unprecedented success at Mercedes, certified 18th for the race. He’ll begin sixteenth after penalties for different drivers.
Hamilton was in disbelief on the means his qualifying fell aside, as he collected a bollard dislodged by Kevin Magnussen’s Haas after the Dane tried to get out of the Briton’s means on the finish of the primary qualifying session.
He informed BBC Sport that qualifying “could not have gone worse actually”.
Hamilton added: “Day-after-day and greater than ever I’ve simply tried to be actually current, simply making an attempt to take it in as a result of it is the final time we will likely be racing and driving in Silver Arrows and it is all my wins, all my success via my life.
“So each second is a particular second and I might have cherished to get a podium for the blokes this weekend and it simply did not work out.”
Hamilton has gained six of his record-equalling seven world titles for Mercedes and brought 84 of his all-time document 105 grand prix victories with the workforce, who took eight consecutive constructors’ championships from 2014-21.
He had been on track to progress into the second a part of qualifying however the bollard lodged underneath his flooring for the ultimate 4 corners of the lap, making it unattainable for the automotive to carry out as supposed.
“You could not make it up, you actually could not, however it’s what it’s,” Hamilton mentioned.
“We gave it all the pieces. I gave it all the pieces. The automotive was in place. Each observe session went nicely, I used to be forward of my team-mate all weekend however once we obtained to qualifying I believe as a workforce we did not carry out when it comes to the timing.
“I used to be the final automotive on observe and ran out of time finally, after which I obtained the bollard on the finish which went underneath the automotive and I misplaced all downforce so it could not have gone worse actually.”
Mercedes workforce boss Toto Wolff informed Sky Sports activities: “I simply have to apologise to Lewis and to everybody within the workforce for working so arduous to make it an awesome finish for him.
“He was the faster man with that form of set-up that we selected on the automotive and in addition to experiment for subsequent 12 months and we completely let him down.
“An idiotic mistake of not going earlier, inexcusable, inexcusable. I’ve actually been so down about what has occurred and it perhaps summarises the final races we have had with him, however that is the worst a part of it as a result of it was simply idiotic.
“Our most dear racing driver ever, essentially the most precious racing driver of this sport will get out in Q1 as a result of we make a mistake and that does not damage all of the legacy we now have with him however I can solely ask for forgiveness to him.”
