Lewis Hamilton gives initial reaction after shock early exit from Saudi Arabia qualifying

Lewis Hamilton has said that issues with balance are the reason for his shock qualifying exit in Q1 at the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix.

Formula 1 has a knack of throwing up surprises on the regular but this is one that few really would have predicted, even if Mercedes are short on performance at the moment.

Ferrari and Red Bull are the strongest cars right now, of course, but the Silver Arrows have looked third-fastest at least, and George Russell showed in Q1 that there is a level of pace available within the W13 around the Jeddah circuit.

However, his team-mate Hamilton simply could not extract the same levels out of the car, which is incredibly rare for him, as he finished 0.7s off of Russell and, crucially, outside the top 15 in Q1 which meant he crashed out of the session at the first stage.

On pure pace, it’s the first time it’s happened to Hamilton since 2009, when he was driving a sub-par McLaren car, whilst he’s had it happen most recently to him at the Brazilian Grand Prix in 2017, but that was because of a crash and not simply because he wasn’t quick enough.

He has a big job on tomorrow, then, as it does appear that the car just isn’t working with him at the moment, and he spoke to Sky after his elimination to explain the initial reasons he thinks are behind what’s happened:

"It's not where we want to be."Lewis Hamilton reacts to his shock exit after being knocked out of Q1 for the first time since 2017