- F1
The seven-time world champion, 40, could only qualify 18th for Sunday’s Qatar Grand Prix
Kieran JacksonFormula 1 CorrespondentSaturday 29 November 2025 21:26 GMTComments
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Lewis Hamilton’s end-of-season F1 nightmare continued on Saturday night as he only qualified 18th for the Qatar Grand Prix.
After being eliminated in Q1 at the last race in Las Vegas, qualifying dead-last, and in SQ1 for the sprint race in Qatar, Hamilton could not turn around his wretched form late on Saturday and was eliminated for the third consecutive time in the first session of qualifying.
The seven-time world champion, still without a podium to his name in Ferrari red, was unable to find any further performance out of his troublesome car and will start third-last once again.
Hamilton had earlier in the day finished the sprint race in 17th, having started in the pit-lane, and in stark contrast to his lack of words on Friday, the 40-year-old gave a detailed analysis of the myriad number of issues he is facing at the moment in the cockpit.
“We just don’t have any stability – when I say that, the rear end is not planted, so it sliding, snapping a lot,” Hamilton said about the SF-25 car.
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“Then we have bouncing, so when you’re going into corners like turn 10, the thing starts bouncing, we have a lot of mid-corner understeer and then you apply the steering and then it snaps and you try and catch it.
“It’s different between low, medium and high… and it’s a fight like you can’t believe.”
The Briton’s teammate Charles Leclerc also struggled and could only qualify 10th on the grid. A downbeat Hamilton stated after qualifying that the car was “feeling better”, but was again at a loss for words when asked to give a message to the Ferrari fanbase.
“I don’t really have a message right now… I’m sorry,” he said.
Lewis Hamilton was eliminated in Q1 for the third consecutive time (Getty Images)“But I’m incredibly grateful for the support that I’ve had all year. I mean, I wouldn’t have made it through this year without them.”
Hamilton is currently sixth in the championship standings and is facing his first season without a top-three finish ahead of the final two rounds in Qatar and Abu Dhabi. His replacement at Mercedes, teenager Kimi Antonelli, is only 12 points behind him in the leaderboard.
Hamilton labelled his year the “worst season ever” last weekend in Vegas. The Brit and teammate Leclerc played down words from Ferrari chairman John Elkann three weeks ago, which encouraged the star driver pairing to “talk less and focus on driving.”
Meanwhile, Oscar Piastri will start on pole ahead of F1 title rivals Lando Norris and Max Verstappen. Norris can claim his maiden title if he wins the grand prix in Lusail.
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