Simply hours after Hamilton had delivered his greatest results of the season as far as he completed second within the Shanghai dash, he got here crashing again to earth as he did not make it out of the primary session of qualifying.
Having braked too deep at Flip 14 due to the tailwind, Hamilton misplaced essential time and was knocked out as he ended up 18th on the grid.
Reflecting on what occurred, he mentioned the error was all the way down to him somewhat than there being something fallacious with the automobile.
“I do not blame something on the staff,” he mentioned. “I believe not my greatest qualifying laps.”
However whereas the rollercoaster of feelings from the highs of the morning to the lows of the afternoon was not simple to grasp, Hamilton mentioned it was nothing to be too fearful about.
“Shit occurs you already know,” he mentioned. “Generally you get it proper, generally you do not. This automobile is on a knife edge, as we all know, so it may well simply do what we have had. However I am going to have some enjoyable from there.”
Reflecting on the progress of his W15 this weekend, Hamilton mentioned that the staff had elected to do one thing daring when parc ferme opened after the dash – though it appeared to haven’t paid off.
“We made large modifications going into qualifying,” he mentioned. “We simply wished to experiment. So George [Russell] determined to go a method, a lot completely different to what we had as a result of we labored just about with the identical earlier than.
Picture by: Mark Sutton / Motorsport Images
“Then I went this different route simply to see if we are able to discover one thing. It did not really feel horrible. I simply could not cease the automobile in Flip 14.”
Russell performed down the variations between the vehicles, nonetheless, though he mentioned the step from the dash had been fairly dramatic.
“We’re fairly related on set-ups, and we each went in the same route,” he defined. “There was a small distinction however directionally very related between the 2 of us.
“We each made massive modifications from the dash race. And that’s: if we optimise all the pieces this weekend, perhaps we might have completed P3, P4, P5, in qualifying. However we nonetheless would not be content material with that.
“We wish to struggle for victories and championships, hopefully, the minimal subsequent 12 months, and generally you have to sacrifice within the brief time period to make some better positive factors down the road.
“We’re nonetheless looking for the event path we should be on to make some massive steps. And that is simply the place we’re in the intervening time.”
Russell made it by way of to Q3 and ended up eighth on the grid, having lamented needing to make use of an additional set of tyres in Q2 on account of Carlos Sainz’s crash.
“It was a little bit of a disgrace, Q2, as a result of my first lap was sturdy sufficient for P3 till the final nook when Carlos introduced the crimson.
“Then you have to use one other set of tyres, after which [you have] just one set in Q3. On the finish of the day, that is the place we’re in the intervening time as a staff.
“If you happen to nail it, you will be on the entrance of that group. If you happen to’re on the again foot, you will be behind that group. And that is what we discovered ourselves inside the final couple of races.”