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A shock was in store at the Mercedes garage as Lewis Hamilton was eliminated after Q2, standing only P13 in the Miami Grand Prix. Meanwhile, his teammate made it through just on the edge.
This is the first time this season that Hamilton wasn't able to make it to Q3 and has turned out to be his worst-ever starting position on US soil. All in all, it has been a hard day for Mercedes because even if the Briton would have made it out of Q2, Russell would have been disqualified. This would have been the second time for him this season.
Fans were agitated on social media as this is one of the worst starting positions Lewis Hamilton has been put on. Here are some of the reactions from Twitter.
What made Lewis Hamilton so slow on his final hot lap?
There were a couple of reasons that made Lewis Hamilton go so slow on his final hot lap. He was heard telling his team that they left out too late for the lap, and it makes up part of the reason.
"We left out too late guys"
"Yep, so P13."
Ted Kravitz later cleared up the confusion that Hamilton left the fans with. Apparently, leaving for the hot lap too late left the seven-time world champion facing a lot of traffic in his out-lap, the point where drivers usually warm their tires up.
However, because of the traffic, he couldn't prepare his tires well and the first issues started there.
Post that, his Mercedes W14 was seen sliding around in the final turns of the circuits, turns 14, 15, and 16. This was another reason why his first and second sectors went slow. Then, leading into the third sector, he wasn't able to put his lap any better than P13.
Meanwhile, George Russell had a slightly better lap, making his way to Q3. Hamilton has been facing issues with the car almost all weekend long. He commented on the car being similar to their W13, which is quite contrary to what the team has been expecting and working on.
There will be a lot of work that Hamilton will have to do to extend their points lead from Ferrari in the standings.
