The Last Time Lewis Hamilton Exited Q1 on Pace Max Verstappen Was in Mid School and Sebastian Vettel Was…

After a lucky first race in Bahrain, the luck didn’t favor Lewis Hamilton this time. The seven-times world champion was out of Q1 for the first time in a long time. This isn’t just shocking, but also hard-hitting facts for Mercedes fans to digest that their favorites are in big trouble.

An interesting angle to look at here. The last time Hamilton went out of the Q1 on the basis of pure pace was in 2009 British Grand Prix with McLaren. Hamilton ended up in P19 in qualification. Jenson Button won the championship that year with Brawn GP. Red Bull and Sebastian Vettel, who won the British GP of 2009, had 0 Championships.

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Moreover, Lewis’s primary rival last year, Max Verstappen, was just 12 years old. This shows the staggering form of the Briton over the years.

Apart from that, the Brackley-based car also suffers from the porpoising effect. All of these made the Mercedes cars inferior to that of Red Bull and Ferrari. This can be felt by Lewis Hamilton very much as the world has seen a rare scene.

What went wrong with Lewis Hamilton?

The double DNF by Red Bull gave the two Mercedes P3 and P4 and a whole lot of points in Bahrain. However, Saudi Arabia didn’t welcome the Mercedes man with the widest arms, as he failed to go to Q2 for the first time since 2017.

After a series of laps, Hamilton couldn’t quite make it till the end. Lewis clocked in 1:30.343 to go out in P16 after being beaten by Lance Stroll of Aston Martin at the very last seconds of Q1. This shows the problems that Mercedes has with their straight-line speed.

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