‘Every weekend is a rescue’

IMOLA, Italy – Lewis Hamilton are hoping to salvage results from this weekend’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix after 13th qualifying round on grid ahead of Saturday’s sprint classification race.

The seven-time champion failed to reach the penalty shootout in Friday’s qualifying after struggling with a performance in wet conditions.

Saturday’s sprint will reward the top eight finishers and net for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Imola on Sunday.

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Hamilton’s cause was not helped when Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz crashed in Q2, resulting in the session being halted in dry conditions with Hamilton only 13th as rain fell before the restart and prevented the drivers from improving their lap times.

But the Mercedes driver blamed the performance of the car, which received several updates before this weekend, on the conditions.

“It wasn’t a great session,” he said. “Of course, it was a disappointment.” We come here with optimism. Everyone worked hard at the factory. It’s disappointing.

“I think we underperformed as a team today. There were things we should have done that we didn’t.

“We’ll work as hard as we can to get ahead in the sprint – it’s going to be a tough one. Hopefully tomorrow the weather will be better.

Asked what he said to Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff when he got back to the garage, Hamilton added: “It’s the stuff inside, I don’t want to share that. We’ll keep working. Every end week is a rescue.”