‘You couldn’t make it up’ - Hamilton on Q1 exit after bizarre bollard incident

Lewis Hamilton was in a philosophical mood after his Q1 exit at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, with his final qualifying session for Mercedes being hampered by a bollard.

Mercedes had to warn Hamilton that he might struggle to start his final lap in the first part of qualifying because of traffic and the time left on the clock, but he just managed to cross the line in time. Then as he rounded Turn 14, Kevin Magnussen cut the corner to keep out of his way but the Haas driver inadvertently knocked loose a bollard that lodged itself under Hamilton’s car, hampering his final few laps as he dropped out in 18th place.

"You couldn't make it up, you really couldn't, but it is what it is,” he told the BBC. “We gave it everything, I gave it everything, the car was in a good place. Every practice session went well, I was ahead of my teammate all weekend but when we got to qualifying I think as a team we didn't perform in terms of the timing.

“I was the last car on track and ran out of time, ultimately, and then I got the bollard at the end which went under the car and I lost all downforce so it couldn't have gone worse really.”

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Despite the disappointment, Hamilton says the car has been strong and will give him a chance of trying to fight back into the points on Saturday.

“Nah, I don’t feel the pain of [it being a kick] in the teeth, as such. I think for me, I’ve just been very present, been enjoying every moment, I’ve got the car in a really good place," he said. "The setup changes we’ve been making, the car has been completely different to the last five races this weekend -- it’s been feeling really great. So it is unfortunate, but…

“The pace was decent. It’s not going to be easy to overtake tomorrow, but I work on strategy now and instead of fighting for the podium, we’ll see how far -- if I can get into the top 10, that would be amazing.”

Team principal Toto Wolff also then took it upon himself to say sorry to Hamilton for the way Mercedes executed qualifying, with the seven-time world champion set to start 16th once grid penalties are applied.

“I just need to apologize to Lewis,” he told Sky Sports. “Also to everyone in the team that worked so hard in making it a great end for him. He was the quicker guy with the setup we chose on the car to experiment for next year. We totally let him down.

“Idiotic mistake of not going earlier. Inexcusable, inexcusable. I’ve rarely been so down about what has happened. Maybe it summarizes the last races we’ve had with him but this is the worst part of it, because it was just idiotic.

“I think we were lucky that both of them wrestled their way through the other traffic. Maybe without the bollard it would have worked. You don’t risk so much in a Q1 where we easily had the pace to make it out there. Our most valuable racing driver ever, the most valuable greatest driver of this sport, gets out in Q1 because we make a mistake. It doesn’t ruin the legacy we had with him but I can only say sorry to him.”