Despite the fact that Lewis Hamilton will start third for the 2022 United States Grand Prix, the Mercedes driver was unhappy with his Qualifying session overall, claiming the car to be difficult.
Hamilton qualified in fifth place, 0.591s behind Carlos Sainz on pole, but due to grid penalties for Charles Leclerc in the Ferrari and Sergio Perez in the Red Bull, the Mercedes driver moves up to the second row of the grid.
“The fact is I was over six tenths off,” Hamilton told reporters after the Qualifying session.
“So given that everyone’s worked so hard to bring an upgrade this weekend and the gap’s the same. That’s difficult.
“All weekend had been feeling really good. I was feeling great in the car, yesterday in FP1. And then even in FP2 with the tyre test, and then this morning.
“Then we got into qualifying and thing went massively to oversteer. And so I was just baffling.
“Catching the rear a lot of times, we went through was mechanically, just one step. It’s tiny. But it seemed to make a huge difference with maybe the temperature drop.”
Wolff racing for victory
Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff was happy with the result of the upgrade to the car, and feels Hamilton could have pulled even more time out of the car.
“Austin didn’t look great on paper a few weeks ago and then we brought the upgrade in which six tenths off,” Wolff told the press.
“Lewis could have could have probably dropped two tenths away it would have been four tenths in Austin, and that looks like looks like a solid result considering the weaknesses and of the of the chassis overall.
“The favourites are starting in front of us but as you see we have with six tenths off pole position could have been like a little bit less than that. And that is a good indication for tomorrow.
“With two cars, strategy wise maybe we have a few more options and definitely Saturday night we need to have the mindset of saying we’ll we’ll race for the victory.”
