Lewis Hamilton rules out title challenge in 2022 after disappointing Sprint at Imola

Lewis Hamilton has said that there will be no title challenge from him and Mercedes this season after he finished 14th in the Sprint at Imola on Saturday afternoon.

The Mercedes has struggled this season with porpoising proving a big issue and, despite a decent number of points in Australia, it looks as though this weekend in Imola is going to be one to forget unless there is a miraculous turnaround.

Indeed, both Hamilton and team-mate George Russell finished outside of the top eight for the Sprint, meaning no points on Saturday, and it looks as though it’ll be a minimal return at best on Sunday in the full Grand Prix.

That said, Hamilton is already 50 points off of Charles Leclerc at the top of the standings before the full race tomorrow, and he admits it is game over for the championship.

“We are obviously not fighting for the championship,” the 7-time champion told Sky Sports F1 after the Sprint.

“But we’re fighting to understand the car and improve and progress through the year. That’s all we can hope for now.

“We stick together, we try to motivate everyone and this is the situation that we are faced with but everyone has their heads down, everyone is working as hard as they can.”

Tomorrow’s race could well be a long one for Lewis, with him starting outside of the top ten and finding it hard to overtake during Saturday’s Sprint.

Merc will be working hard to try and sort their problems but, ultimately, it appears they have a long, long way to go and despite there being so many races left in the campaign, it could well be the case Lewis’ chances of the title this season have already gone.