F1 Sao Paulo Grand Prix: Lewis Hamilton can’t wait to be rid of his Mercedes – ‘we won’t be winning, that’s for sure’
- Seven-times world champion rues ‘horrible’ sprint race in Brazil and writes off his chances ahead of Sunday’s race proper
- ‘But only a couple more races with this car and it’s done, so I’ll be happy,’ Hamilton says, adding that he is ‘counting down the days’
Lewis Hamilton said he was counting down the days to the end of the Formula One season, and being able to consign his Mercedes car to history, after a frustrating Sao Paulo sprint on Saturday.
The seven-times world champion and his team had arrived in Brazil full of hope after strong performances in the previous two races but Interlagos delivered a bucket of cold water instead.
“It was horrible. It was not enjoyable whatsoever,” Hamilton said after finishing the 100km sprint in seventh place while teammate George Russell, last year’s winner in Brazil, was fourth.
“I was just fighting the car from very early on.”
Both cars suffered from significant tyre degradation during the race, with Russell ending up 25.8 seconds adrift of Red Bull’s race winner Max Verstappen – a significant margin over a mere 24 laps – and Hamilton 34.7 seconds off the pace.
Hamilton told reporters the car was suffering understeer and snap oversteer with the tyre performance dropping off, and he expected a long afternoon on Sunday in the grand prix.
