“Fifth is never that great” - Hamilton reflects on underwhelming qualifying

Mercedes saw their cars secure fifth and sixth on the grid for Sunday’s race at Interlagos.

It was a chaotic end to qualifying as the conditions deteriorated to the rain, impacting the likes of Lando Norris and Sergio Perez, who qualified behind the two Mercedes drivers.

Reflecting on qualifying in Sao Paulo, Hamilton said: “I mean it’s fifth. Fifth is never that great. I did the best I could. Hopefully we will have a better race.”

"The car was showing signs of decent performance but generally we’re a couple of tenths off the top guys. 

"I think the circumstances at the end, the conditions, have us a little bit further up, I don’t know, difficult to say.”

George Russell admitted he was “really disappointed” with his final lap and even considered coming into the pit lane as he thought he’d be 10th in Q3.

“Absolutely crazy,” Russell explained. “I’ve never ever seen a change of weather so drastically as that. I was really disappointed with the lap. 

“On my lap, I was just sliding around, I had no grip, I didn’t see that much rain on my visor but I was a second off and I actually wanted to pit because I was confident I was going to be last - but ended up P6. 

“P6 isn’t a bad place to start. Car has been performing well here and we know it’s all about race pace. Let’s see how we perform on Saturday and Sunday.”