Lewis Hamilton's three-word admission sums up 'nightmare' United States GP qualifying

Lewis Hamilton will start the United States Grand Prix from 18th place on the grid, having failed to make it through the first qualifying round in Austin, compounding a nightmare Saturday

Lewis Hamilton is already looking forward to Formula 1's next race after a 'nightmare' qualifying session had him weighing up a pit-lane start ahead of the United States Grand Prix.

Mercedes star Hamilton failed to reach the second round of qualifying on Saturday, hours after missing out on the chance of a podium in the Sprint race due to a suspension issue. The seven-time world champion qualified P19, although Liam Lawson's engine penalty means that Hamilton will be bumped up a place on the starting grid.

But that consolation means little to the Brit, who summed up his woes during an interview after qualifying. Asked by F1 TV how disappointed he was with his performance, a glum Hamilton replied: "I'm P19, so..."

The interviewer followed up by asking where the pace went, to which the 39-year-old replied: "I don't know."

Hamilton, the record six-time winner of the US GP, was more willing to elaborate when quizzed on potential issues with the car itself. "I know there was something broken in the Sprint but the guys worked really hard to fix it," he explained. "But it was terrible in quali. Definitely demoralising but it is what it is and I'll look forward to next week [the Mexican Grand Prix]."

Saturday marked the first time that Hamilton had failed to progress beyond Q1 at Austin's Circuit of the Americas in 12 visits and even suggested that he'd be better off starting from the pit-lane. "The car was a nightmare in qualifying," he added to Sky Sports. "I should probably start in the pit lane, otherwise I won't be going anywhere from where I am."

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Hamilton, who'd enjoyed a promising Friday and felt the benefits of Mercedes' upgrades, also bemoaned: "In the Sprint we had some sort of failure on the formation lap on the front suspension, and I had that throughout the Sprint race. That made the balance really difficult. We did change a couple of things, just in the direction of what we would have done yesterday."

Merecedes team-mate George Russell managed to go all the way to Q3 but crashed on his final lap to curtail the qualifying session, inadvertently securing pole for McLaren's Lando Norris as Drivers' Championship leader Max Verstappen of Red Bull had to settle for P2.

Fortunately, Russell climbed out of his car unassisted and will start Sunday's race from sixth position to give Mercedes some hope of a decent points return. "The car didn't feel as put together but the pace was coming easily yesterday. Today it just was not," Russell commented.

"It seems like such a theme that when we find the sweet spot we have a car that's capable of pole positions and wins. When we can't, we are nowhere. Apologies to the team. They have worked hard to bring these upgrades and it's really disappointing from my side with the outcome."

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