Lewis Hamilton suffers US GP qualifying nightmare as hush falls over Austin F1 track

Lewis Hamilton had a very consistent qualifying record at the Circuit of the Americas but lost it on Saturday with a lap that was 19th quickest out of the 20 drivers on track

A hush fell over the Circuit of the Americas as Lewis Hamilton suffered an unexpected Q1 exit.

Hamilton is incredibly popular in the USA and has a strong record in Austin. But he was the second slowest of the 20 drivers on track in Q1 on Saturday night and was P19 on the timesheets - above only Zhou Guanyu.

It marks the first time the seven-time Formula 1 champion has ever qualified outside the top five for a Grand Prix at COTA. Replays showed his Mercedes suffer a large lock-up on that best flying lap which cost him around half-a-second in the middle sector of the track.

Commentating on the live actions, the Sky Sports F1 commentary team could barely believe what they were watching. Lead commentator David Croft said: "That is it for Lewis Hamilton at a circuit where, when it comes to Grand Prix qualifying, he has always qualified inside the top five.

"But he has not made it out of the bottom five in the first round of qualifying! That is a huge upset... There is a bit of a hush around the track as the fans take in that particular effort from Lewis Hamilton in."

Co-commentator Martin Brundle was similarly dumbstruck and asked: "What on earth is going on?" Hamilton was joined in exiting the session in Q1 by both Sauber and Williams cars - former Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas 18th above him, while Alex Albon edged out team-mate Franco Colapinto to go 16th fastest.

All of them, including Hamilton, will rise at least one place on the grid for the race, though. That is because Liam Lawson has inherited a set of engine penalties from predecessor Daniel Ricciardo and so will start at the back of the grid despite making it safely through to Q2.

For Hamilton, it was a miserable continuation of what he had experienced in the Sprint race earlier on Saturday. He started seventh and did manage to rise one place to finish sixth, but struggled for pace throughout. George Russell, who safely made it through to Q2, was fifth in the Sprint and suffered front tyre degradation while Hamilton had trouble with his rears.

That disparity meant bafflement for both drivers when trying to make heads or tails of what had happened. Hamilton said: "Definitely a confusing result in that he had one problem and I had another problem. I had zero pace... We will look into it and there are changes we can make, but it is a lot hotter than it was yesterday so that is obviously part of the reason."

And Russell added: "I was quick in the beginning and then I had no tyres left... I spoke to Lewis after the race and he had no rear tyres left, so we are clearly missing something. It is a little bit hotter today and the first time we have run on these medium tyres."

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