Lewis Hamilton delivers worrying “I’m definitely not fast anymore” admission

Lewis Hamilton has admitted he’s “definitely not fast anymore” after another disappointing F1 sprint qualifying outing at the Qatar Grand Prix.

Hamilton could only qualify seventh in Qatar, 0.4s off McLaren’s Lando Norris.

Worryingly for Hamilton, he was around four-tenths off teammate George Russell, who put his Mercedes on the front row of the grid.

It continues Hamilton’s disappointing run of qualifying results - something he’s not been able to get on top of this year ahead of his move to Ferrari next year.

Speaking to F1 TV after qualifying, Hamilton described his sprint qualifying display as the “same as every other quali”.

“Same as every other quali, not that great,” he said. “I’m just slow. Same every weekend. So… yeah, car felt relatively decent, no issues, not really much more to say.”

Hamilton was then asked about his chances in the sprint race: “The long run didn’t feel too bad but when you’re always back where I am it makes it almost impossible pretty much to be competing for wins from there. But that’s the sprint, I’ll do what I can tomorrow.

“The positive is the car is fast. And, George should be able to shoot for pole tomorrow.”

The interview concluded with Hamilton being asked: “but we know this isn’t a you thing…”

After mis-hearing the question, the interviewer clarified: “We know this can’t be a you thing because you’re saying the car is fast…”

Hamilton replied: “Who knows. I’m definitely not fast anymore”.

Hamilton is clearly lacking confidence over one-lap in his final year with Mercedes.

In conventional qualifying, Russell is 17-5 up in the head-to-head over one-lap (5-1 in sprint weekends).

The 39-year-old has often shown great pace up until Q3 before his challenge faltering, as seen in Las Vegas.

This weekend though, it appeared that he simply didn’t have Russell’s pace in sprint qualifying.