Lewis Hamilton makes Mercedes demand minutes after US Grand Prix qualifying nightmare

The seven-time F1 champion went only 19th fastest in Q1 on Saturday to mark by far his worst ever result at the Circuit of the Americas. And afterwards he confirmed there had been changes made to his car between the Sprint race earlier in the day and qualifying.

He said: “”In the Sprint we had some sort of failure on the formation lap on the front suspension and I had that throughout the Sprint race. That made the balance really difficult.

“We did change a couple of things to push us in the direction of what we would have done yesterday and the car was a nightmare today in qualifying. I should probably start in the pit lane, otherwise I will not be going anywhere. It was just an inconsistent balance and no grip.”

Lewis Hamilton and George Russell say same thing as Mercedes baffled at US Grand Prix

A Mercedes spokesperson confirmed that a bearing problem had been discovered on Hamilton’s car and fixed between the sessions. There was no immediate evidence to suggest that the issue had arisen again, but it was clear that the Brit was unhappy with how his car felt on track.