Lewis Hamilton isn’t taking much hope into Sunday’s Monaco Grand Prix after a horrid qualifying session left the Briton 13th on the grid.
Problems with tyre temperatures once again badly impacted the performance of his Mercedes during the first run of Q2 before a crash for Stoffel Vandoorne exiting the Swimming Pool in the final minutes of the second segment meant the three-time world champion was unable to improve.
Though he gained a place by virtue of Jenson Button’s penalty and factors such as Safety Cars could help Hamilton recover into the points, the 32-year-old was pessimistic about his hopes.
“I mean that’s pretty much the weekend done,” he claimed immediately after stepping out of the car. “Tomorrow I’ll just be driving around in whatever position outside of the top 10.
“I’ll try and get up as high as I can but it’s hard to overtake here as you know. It’s going to be a nice Sunday drive tomorrow I imagine.”
Problems optimising tyre performance have hampered Mercedes throughout 2017 and particularly Hamilton who had a similar lack of pace in Russia, while team-mate Valtteri Bottas was able to find a solution.
“At the moment it is a big unknown but a lot of analysis will go into trying to understand it. It is a tyre issue, I didn’t get the grip from the tyres,” said Hamilton. “I’m not really sure [what happened].”
As for Monaco specifically, he added: “The opportunity wasn’t really there for me. I just struggled with the car. I don’t really have much to say at the moment. Deflated, but I’ll keep pushing tomorrow.”
Across the garage, Bottas was able to give Mercedes some hope just missing out on the pole and settling for third behind the two Ferraris.
“I think we should be able to fight with them here,” the Finn said rating his chances in the race.
“Normally at some time there is always a Safety Car and if that happens it will create opportunities. Hopefully, we can follow them and then use any situation to create opportunities.”