Lewis Hamilton writes off title fight as Mercedes hit new low

IMOLA, Italy — Lewis Hamilton wrote off his chances of competing for the Formula One title this year after falling 50 points adrift of championship leader Charles Leclerc at Saturday's sprint race at Imola.

Hamilton finished 14th in the sprint race, which sets the grid for Sunday's Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, after starting the 21-lap race in 13th place. The performance adds to Hamilton's difficult start to the 2022 season in which his Mercedes team has struggled to match the performance of rivals Red Bull and Ferrari under F1's new regulations.

«We're obviously not fighting for this championship,» Hamilton told Sky Sports. «But we're fighting to understand the car and improve and progress through the year. That's all we can hope for right now.»

Mercedes boss Toto Wolff said his team had hit a new low this season after both cars failed to make the top ten in qualifying for the first time since 2012.

«We are four races in and today marks the low of the first four races,» he said. «It is obvious that we are not anywhere near the fight at the front.

»It would be a pretty unrealistic to claim we have a slot among the frontrunners fighting for the championship."

It was clear at the opening races that Mercedes was not in contention for victories, but the team dropped further down the order at Imola. The lack of performance in Friday's wet qualifying session was blamed on a lack of tyre temperature over a single lap, but Mercedes' engineers were hopeful the car would be more competitive in race conditions.

The Imola circuit is notoriously difficult to overtake on and Wolff said Mercedes simply lacked the performance necessary to move up the order on Saturday.

«I think what we saw today is that we haven't got a car with enough