Ferrari provide ironic twist in Mercedes engine battle

As the final practice session concluded at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton hauled himself out of his Mercedes and began to trudge away step after heavy step.

Head bowed, his left hand seemed to extend to touch the rear tyre of his W13 – as if making one last hopeful search for inspiration – as he finished a passing inspection.

With his trainer Angela Cullen, as ever, shadowing his every move, Hamilton weighed himself at the back of the garage before he turned and stood to survey the scene for a couple of seconds, arms by his side and eyes concealed by the half-shut visor of his helmet.

Where did it all go wrong, he must have asked himself. How had it come to this?

As he swung to shuffle away, his shoulders and head collapsing once more, Hamilton’s deflated body language captured the desolation of his impending defeat and made for the defining image of the worst weekend of his nine-year Mercedes career.

A little over two hours later, Hamilton would be sentenced to 16th on the grid – falling at the first stage of qualifying on pure pace for the first time since Silverstone 2009 – and would recover to only 10th in the race, denied a higher finish by the confused communication between team and driver during the Virtual Safety Car.

Having escaped the season-opening Bahrain GP with a podium, last weekend revealed the true extent of Mercedes’ difficulties in 2022 as Hamilton’s team-mate George Russell qualified almost a second adrift of pole position and finished more than half a minute behind race winner Max Verstappen despite a clean run to fifth in Jeddah.

Mercedes’ current problems with ‘porpoising’ – quickly apparent whenever the W13 takes to the track – have been well documented and there are some, including