'Lando Should Be Up Here' Says Hamilton After Taking Third Position In Qualifying

Saturday, 07 October 2023 at 11:14

Updated at Tuesday, 02 January 2024 at 20:26

Mercedes F1 driver Lewis Hamilton said that "Lando should be up here" in regard to his third starting position on the grid for the 2023 Qatar Grand Prix.

Qualifying for the 2023 Qatar Grand Prix was truly exciting for everybody to watch as the battle for first place was really close between four teams - Aston Martin, Mercedes, McLaren, and Red Bull. However, the whole session was full of time deletions for multiple drivers due to track limit infringements.

Lusail International Circuit, where the Grand Prix takes place, could be characterized by consisting almost only of straights and fast sweeping corners. As Liam Lawson said, the track includes only one low-speed corner.

It is exactly this nature of the circuit that makes drivers go over the white lines (that indicate track limits) when they are pushing more than 100% out of their cars. Multiple drivers have become victims of their times being deleted due to track limits.

Drivers that will probably be the most upset include Sergio Perez, who did not make it out of Q2 because of his time being deleted, as well as McLaren drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, who both missed out on the third place.

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The man who took third place in the end was the seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton. While Hamilton can be grateful for a better starting position, he does not seem to agree with the punishments for track limit infringements of other drivers. During the post-qualifying conference, he said:

"When I went around the track yesterday on the scooter, I thought the curbs looked quite big, but I think they’re actually really good. As Max said, I think when you go beyond the highest point of the curb, you lose time. I don’t feel like at this track we need to have track limits. Lando should be up here"

As Hamilton explained, the track contains specific curbs that he feels make drivers slower when going over them. Consequently, there should not be a need for further punishment by deletion of their times.