HOCKENHEIM, Germany — Lewis Hamilton is convinced the car issue which saw him eliminated from Q1 in Germany started moments before he ran wide at Turn 1.
In the closing stages of the opening qualifying session, Hamilton ran wide at the opening corner and across the kerbs. He immediately encountered car trouble as hydraulic fluid started leaking from his car, forcing him to stop on track, meaning he could take no further part in qualifying despite comfortably progressing through to Q2.
When asked by Sky Sports after the session if that mistake had caused the issue, Hamilton said: “No, we use the kerb the same every lap. We got to the kerb and just before the kerb the steering broke, so that was the issue.”
Wolff had a different opinion when asked about the issue after qualifying, although he said the team is still investigating exactly what happened.
“The problem was that we seemed to damage a bit in the car jumping over the kerb and that caused the hydraulic leak,” Wolff said. “But we need to get the car back and see if that was really the case and then we weren’t good enough to get the pole.”
Hamilton looked dejected after the stoppage, kneeling alongside his car in similar fashion to his famous reaction after an engine failure robbed him of victory of 2016 Malaysian Grand Prix — the moment widely regarded as costing him that year’s championship crown.
However, Wolff insisted the four-time world champion was in better spirits by the time he had returned to the paddock.
“He was actually in a great mood. It was all good, we had quite a laugh in the debrief.”
Hamilton’s failure was followed by Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel romping to pole position in front of his and Mercedes’ home crowd. Wolff refused to make excuses for the final outcome.
“At the moment we are losing on the straights but I don’t want to sound sore about it. We just need to improve.”