Hamilton mystified by curious vanishing act in Canadian GP qualifying

Lewis Hamilton was left mystified by his grip disappearing during qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix after looking so strong ahead of the session.

Hamilton was in many ways the favourite for pole position, having topped third practice by just over three tenths of a second. 

The seven-time world champion’s great pace continued throughout Q1 and Q2, but he could only salvage seventh in the final part of qualifying. 

It was a bitter blow for the 39-year-old, who was 0.280s slower than George Russell on pole position. 

Hamilton was quick to congratulate his team-mate on a second career pole before noting his confusion at the sudden loss of grip.

“The car’s been feeling great throughout the weekend,” Hamilton told select media including RacingNews365.

“Congrats to George, he had plenty of pace between FP3 and then when qualifying started.”

Hamilton continued: “The conditions were great. The conditions were perfect. Just for some reason the tyres weren’t working the whole session, I just didn’t have grip.

“I had like an easy half a second advantage in FP3 and that was gone.”

‘Grip just disappears’

Despite his disappointing result, Hamilton praised the Mercedes employees back at the factory for working tirelessly to introduce new upgrades, most notably a new front wing. 

However, not for the first time this season, the Briton explained how the feeling of his W15 changed come the start of qualifying.

“Everyone’s worked so hard to bring upgrades back at the factory,” Hamilton told Sky Sports F1.

“The car was feeling great all weekend, as soon as we got to qualifying that kind of vanished.”

When pressed on what feeling he lost during qualifying, the 103-time race winner revealed that his qualifying issues were down to his grip vanishing. 

“The grip just disappears from me,” explained Hamilton. “FP3 I had plenty of pace, then get to qualifying and the tyres don’t work.”