Hamilton Reveals Surprisingly Huge Time Loss Between FP3 And Qualifying

Sunday, 09 June 2024 at 12:00

Lewis Hamilton, who qualified in P7 for the 2024 Canadian Grand Prix, wasn't happy with his result. He revealed that he yet again lost time between practice sessions and qualifying.

The seven-time World Champion was objectively the fastest driver on the track throughout all three practice sessions ahead of the qualification at Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.

The 39-year-old seemed very confident and comfortable in his W15 after he got all the newest upgrades installed and topped the timing sheets in Q3, almost four-tenths ahead of Max Verstappen in P2.

It was clear that Mercedes had the pace to qualify on pole on Saturday, and in the end, they did, but it wasn't Hamilton. George Russell put in the fastest lap of the session, and Hamilton couldn't match him, scoring only the seventh-fastest time—a big disappointment.

Speaking to the media right after the qualifying, the seven-time World Champion asserted he felt like he lost a huge amount of time between the final practice session and the qualifying:

"I reckon I lost half a second probably going into qualifying, just grip wasn't there."

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Hamilton said after the qualifying in Monaco that his car never feels the same once he comes from the final practice into the qualifying and that he can automatically expect to lose two tenths.

The issue that he described after the qualification for the Canadian Grand Prix seemed pretty much the same, but he lost even more time, according to his words. He also told Canal+:

"The whole qualifying was pretty poor from my side. Just the car was not the same when I got into qualifying."

"The team's doing a great job. Everyone's doing such a great job with developing the car, and it's great to see us have performance back on us again. Congrats to George. I'm sure he'll do a good job tomorrow."