Hamilton finishes in P18 in Shootout: ‘Time was not right’

Lewis Hamilton could have qualified for Q2 in Saturday’s Shootout session, but his lap time was deleted thanks to the track limit rules. The seven-time champion will now start the Sprint race from P18 on the grid, while his teammate George Russell finished in P15 as a result of a hydraulic failure.

Hamilton was not satisfied with the result, as he was not able to complete a final lap after his lap got taken away by the stewards. "Time was not right," Hamilton told Lawrence Barretto in a quick interview after his early exit on Saturday morning.

"Yeah, but the sprint race doesn't really matter anyway so today I just had some fun from the back and it is what it is. I don't really feel any way about it to be honest, I wish I was still out there but yeah, not today," the Briton added, who finished in P5 in Friday's qualifying session.

On the other hand, Hamilton now has the chance to potentially overtake many cars in the sprint. "There's nothing really to say, we'll just focus on our job today and could have easily been much further up there but yeah, just have a bit of fun at the back," Hamilton concluded.