Lewis Hamilton had a miserable Russian GP qualifying session in the mixed weaather conditions. The Brit set early pace in Q3 1m 44.050s lap.
But then Lewis’s 2022 team mate George Russell instructed his team to prepare his slick tyres, with the rest of the field following suit as they all dived in for soft tyres. Hamilton’s dive was over-eager, though, with the seven-time champion hitting the pit entry wall and damaging his front wing, forcing Mercedes to lose time as they changed it.
With Hamilton finally able to re-join the track, he then radioed in to complain of not being able to get heat into his tyres. Initially, however, it had looked as though the move to slicks might have been the wrong one, with few drivers improving on their first laps on the softs.
Hamilton wasn’t amongst that top three, spinning a few corners from the end on his final run to compound a rough finish to qualifying, but having done enough on the inters to end up P4, ahead of Italian Grand Prix winner Ricciardo in fifth, with Alonso sixth.
