Lewis Hamilton believes changes to the track limits coupled with car balance issues caused his early exit in the Shootout for the Qatar Grand Prix Sprint. The seven-time World Champion will start 12th on the grid for the Sprint at the Lusail International Circuit, with teammate George Russell starting fourth. His best effort of a 1:25.626 was deleted at the end of SQ2 after he exceeded track limits at Turn 5 but even this was not good enough to get into the top ten fastest times. Hamilton has been vocal about track limits throughout the weekend having remarked that Lando Norris' deleted lap that earned him second on the grid for the Grand Prix should have stood.
Hamilton: We've never had track limits changes like this before
Referring to the late track changes made at Turns 12 and 13 to combat safety fears raised by Pirelli, Hamilton said: "We've never had anything like that before going into qualifying [Shootout], so everyone's in the same boat. "I just struggled more quite a lot with the balance and a lot of understeer. I can't really pinpoint why the car was the way it was. "I don't know [why], with the wind or the temperature being a little hotter, but the [car] balance is completely off."
Most read
Never miss a thing from the Formula 1 season! Add the 2026 F1 schedule to your calendar at the touch of a button. Subscribe below and put the dates and times of every race directly on your PC or smartphone, so you don't miss a second from the new season.
Download the F1 calendar Download the F1 calendar
A variant with just the race and qualifying is also available.
Click here to download it..
