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Lewis Hamilton will start his final Formula 1 race for Mercedes in 16th after a bizarre Q1 incident involving a bollard.
Mercedes duo George Russell and Hamilton were 10th and 11th after the first runs in Q1 and needed to improve with less than 0.7s covering the 19 cars that had set a time.
Both cars were close together entering the final sector on their outlaps before Hamilton slowed down entering the penultimate corner to let Liam Lawson go past on a flying lap.
Hamilton then accelerated towards the final corner to prepare his push lap but had to slow down again instantly as Russell and Jack Doohan backed up ahead of him.
Despite the suboptimal preparation, and being fairly close to Doohan’s Alpine through the lap, Hamilton’s first two sectors were two tenths faster than those of Russell, who progressed into Q2 in ninth.
But he was then four tenths slower than Russell in the final sector, which left him a tenth from safety.
The cause was striking a bollard dislodged by Kevin Magnussen trying to get out of Hamilton’s way by cutting the Turn 14 left-hand that ends the sequence of 90-degree corners around the hotel before the final two turns.
That happened right in front of Hamilton who then unknowingly hit the bollard, which got trapped under his Mercedes’ floor.
No luck for Lewis 😔#F1 #AbuDhabiGP pic.twitter.com/FNsWmqMjIi
— Formula 1 (@F1) December 7, 2024
Hamilton immediately raised a hand in frustration after crossing the line, and said they had “messaged that up big time guys” over the radio, before shaking his head.
“Yeah, sorry about that Lewis, that was a big balls up,” his race engineer Peter Bonington said.
Hamilton said: “That was bad man. Jesus.”
Team principal Toto Wolff then unusually came over the radio to say, “Yeah, s*** Lewis, that was bad”, which Hamilton acknowledged with a “yeah, thanks”.
"Just my luck but it's OK," Hamilton told Sky Sports F1 after qualifying.
"We tried so hard with set-up and got the car in a great place, was looking good in FP3. I was really thinking maybe a podium was possible this weekend, timing was not optimised in the session. I ended up behind one of the Alpines right at the end."
Hamilton said the Mercedes had been "completely different this weekend, it's been so much nicer to drive", giving him hope of salvaging something from Sunday.
He was asked in a later media scrum whether it was a kick in the teeth given its his final weekend with Mercedes.
"No, I don’t feel that pain in the teeth as such," Hamilton replied.
"For me, I’ve just been very present, been enjoying every moment, I’ve got the car in a really good place with the set-up things we’ve been making.
"The car’s been completely different to the last five races this weekend. It’s been feeling really great. So it is unfortunate."
'I just need to apologise to Lewis'
Wolff was furious after qualifying, apologising to Hamilton for the team sending him out so late in the session.
"I just need to apoloigse to Lewis, to everyone for the team who worked so hard," he told Sky.
"He was the quicker guy with that kind of set-up we chose on the car. [We] totally let him down, and it's the obvious mistake of not going earlier. Inexcusable.
"I'm really been so down about what has happened. Maybe summarises the last races we've had with him but this is the worst part of it because it was just idiotic."
While Wolff acknowledged the bollard incident was unfortunate but he still felt the runplan was inexcusable.
"We were lucky with both of them they raced their way through the traffic. Then without the bollard, it would have worked," Wolff added.
"But you don't risk so much in a Q1 where we easily had the pace to make it out of there.
"Our most valuable racing driver ever, the most valuable driver in this sport goes out in Q1 because we made a mistake.
"Doesn't ruin all the legacy we had with him but I can only say sorry to him."
Russell, meanwhile, escaped a run-in with Lawson after the RB had to take the inside line into the final corner on his flying lap (after passing Hamilton into the penultimate corner).
No further investigation was deemed necessary as the stewards presumably deemed Russell could not get out of the way anymore on the outside line without going off-track.
Russell ended up down in seventh in Q3 and was at a loss to explain the pace loss after the session.
