Lewis Hamilton Exposes Mercedes’ Car “Struggle” After Nearly Being Outqualified by 18-Year-Old Oliver Bearman

The second qualifying session of the 2024 season is done and dusted. While it was business as usual for Red Bull and Max Verstappen, with the Dutchman taking his 34th pole position, it was a miserable outing on the track for the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton and George Russell. Lewis has lost to his teammate in qualifying for the third time running. What’s even more troubling for the 7-time world champion is that he was nearly knocked out of Q2 by Ferrari debutant Oliver Bearman, who missed out on Q3 by just 0.036 seconds behind Hamilton.

After Q3 was concluded with Lewis Hamilton almost a second adrift from the blistering lap time of 1 minute 27.474 seconds set by the pole sitter, Verstappen, the Brit came over on the team radio to express his disappointment with his performance. “That was a real struggle for the car,“ Hamilton told his race engineer Peter Bonnington.

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Despite Mercedes’ struggles, there were plenty of highlights during qualifying as the grid is set for a thrilling race on Saturday.

A rundown of the qualifying session at Jeddah

By winning his second consecutive pole position in 2024, Max Verstappen once more solidified his reputation as a force on the track. His blistering pole time put him 0.3 seconds ahead of his closest rival, Charles Leclerc. Adding to the excitement of the qualifying session was the debut of rookie driver Oliver Bearman, who stood in for Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz. Despite his limited experience at the highest level of motorsport, Bearman left a lasting impression with his performance. Despite narrowly missing out on Q3, the 18-year-old displayed remarkable composure behind the wheel, securing the 11th spot on the grid.

Sergio Perez, the winner of last year’s Saudi Arabian GP, secured the third position on the grid, with Fernando Alonso close behind in fourth. Alonso’s strategic move to capitalize on a slipstream from Lewis Hamilton at the start of the lap paid off, giving him a competitive edge heading into the final sector of his lap. The qualifying session also saw impressive performances from other drivers, including Oscar Piastri, who out-qualified his McLaren teammate Lando Norris for the second year in a row. Yuki Tsunoda bounced back from a disappointing outing in Bahrain with a stellar qualifying performance, outshining his Visa Cash App RB’s teammate Daniel Ricciardo to claim ninth place on the grid.

Nico Hulkenberg‘s hopes of replicating his stellar performance in Bahrain were dashed due to a power issue that prematurely ended his session, relegating him to the 15th position on the grid. Unsurprisingly, Alpine and Kick Sauber continued to face challenges, with both of their drivers failing to advance past Q1.