Schumacher airlifted to hospital and Hamilton flops in Saudi GP drama

Lewis Hamilton will start a lowly 16th in Sunday’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix as Mick Schumacher was airlifted to hospital following a terrifying 160mph crash.

As Sergio Perez raced to pole position under the thousands of bulbs that light up the Jeddah street circuit, seven-time world champion Hamilton failed to make it out of Q1 in one of the worst qualifying displays of his record-breaking Formula One career.

Hamilton and his Mercedes team have struggled to get on top of the sport’s new regulations, but nobody would have predicted the grid’s most decorated driver would fall at the first hurdle.

A disconsolate Hamilton – nearly seven tenths slower than George Russell in the other Mercedes, who ended up qualifying sixth – replied: “I am so sorry, guys.”

Charles Leclerc will start second ahead of Ferrari team-mate Carlos Sainz with world champion Max Verstappen fourth.

With two minutes of Q1 remaining, Hamilton, who started from pole and won in Jeddah last year, said: “Can’t seem to improve, man… are we at risk right now?”

His race engineer, Peter Bonnington replied: “Affirm, we are at risk.”

And although Hamilton improved with his final run to temporarily move up to 15th and out of the danger zone, Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll beat his time to cause a shock result.

It marked the first time Hamilton had failed to get out of Q1 on pure speed since the 2009 British Grand Prix.

Following his early exit from qualifying, Hamilton told Sky Sports: “I just struggled with the balance of the car, it’s not where we want to be.”

As Hamilton spoke in the television pen, the focus turned to Schumacher following the 23-year-old German’s crash.

Mick, the son of seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher, lost control of his Haas as he