Hamilton searching for Mercedes answers after early Shootout exit

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."