Lewis Hamilton’s unexpected answer to 1-7 George Russell deficit in F1 qualifying

Lewis Hamilton was downbeat after his latest F1 qualifying defeat at the Monaco Grand Prix to George Russell, claiming he doesn’t expect to beat his Mercedes teammate again this year.

After showing great pace through practice, Hamilton’s performance fell away in the dying moments of Q3.

Hamilton was beaten yet again by Russell, meaning the younger British driver leads 7-1 in the qualifying head-to-head.

The seven-time world champion is on a poor run of form, particularly on Saturdays, and is on course to be out-qualified by a teammate for the first time since 2014.

Reflecting on qualifying, Hamilton was visibly disappointed, citing the fact that Russell had the new front wing as a reason for the difference in their performance.

“For sure, for sure. Great, yesterday. We have worked hard to improve this car,” he said.

“From the get-go it felt great and we were competitive yesterday and this morning. We didn’t make any drastic changes. The team worked hard, back at the factory, to bring an upgrade for the past two weekends, and an upgrade here. But we only have one, which George has.

“So I anticipated it would be difficult to out-qualify George because he has the [upgraded] component. It’s great to see that we are bringing upgrades.”

Hamilton was incredibly downbeat about his qualifying display, particularly as he was beaten yet again by Russell.

The 39-year-old made a remarkable claim where he doesn’t “anticipate” that he will be ahead of Russell at all this year on a Saturday.

“I don’t anticipate being ahead of George in qualifying particularly, this year. We have got to keep pushing,” he commented.

Hamilton was left perplexed by his lack of qualifying performance relative to practice.

He topped the timesheets in FP1 before finishing in the top three in the other two sessions.

“Once we got to qualifying, I don’t understand,” he added. “I already know automatically that I will lose two tenths, going into qualifying. That is definitely frustrating.

“It’s something I haven’t asked for. I am not driving any different. The laps are really great. I don’t know. It’s just lacking, for some reason.”