Lewis Hamilton incredibly eliminated from qualifying in Saudi Arabia to line up P16 for tomorrow's race

7-time Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton will start tomorrow’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix from a lowly 16th place after a hugely surprising qualifying display from the Briton left him eliminated from Q1 on Saturday evening.

Qualifying in Formula 1 is broken up into three phases with the idea being to whittle down the field with 5 drivers dropping out at the first two stages before the remaining ten go for pole position.

Hamilton, of course, as a driver with a century of poles to his name is very well-versed in being in Q3 and gunning for top spot but, in Saudi, he came nowhere near threatening the upper reaches of the grid.

Mercedes, of course, have struggled for pace and performance already this season with Ferrari and Red Bull the two teams looking the strongest so far, but the Silver Arrows did a good job of damage limitation last weekend in Bahrain regardless, as they achieved a 3rd and 4th place finish in the race with a double retirement for the Bulls.

Repeating that feat for Hamilton this weekend, though, looks a tall order with him crashing out at the first hurdle, for the first time on pure pace since 2009 when he was driving a McLaren car that was well off of the lead runners.

Interestingly, George Russell set a time that was 0.7s quicker in Q1 which, given they are in the same car, is some indication of just how much Hamilton has been struggling this weekend.

Lewis had already looked a little concerned after FP3 earlier on in the day, and those fears have clearly come home to roost with just four cars lining up behind him tomorrow on the grid.

He faces a big fight through the field just to get decent points, then, and whilst you’d never back against him doing that it is clear that the car is just not where