‘An awful feeling as a driver’ - Lewis Hamilton’s W15 qualifying woes examined

Lewis Hamilton’s recent qualifying struggles have been analysed by former F1 driver-turned-pundit Karun Chandhok.

The seven-time world champion suffered a shock elimination in the second part of qualifying at the Australian Grand Prix and could only set a time good enough for 11th on the grid.

The result marked Hamilton’s worst qualifying performance in Melbourne since 2010. It was also the third weekend in a row that he has been out-paced by Mercedes teammate George Russell, who was seventh.

After the session, a frustrated Hamilton admitted the inconsistency of Mercedes’ W15 car “messes with the mind”.

"It almost seems corner to corner in some ways,” Chandhok said during Sky’s coverage of qualifying.

"There are some parts when it looks like Lewis has got the balance and grip underneath him then the next time he gets there, it goes away. That's an awful feeling as a driver.

"When you're going down the straight and get onto the brakes, you want to know how your car is going to react and when you turn the wheel what are the feelings you get in terms of how your car moves.

"If you've got any hesitation in terms of predicting how that movement is going to go, immediately you back off a bit and brake earlier or carry a bit less speed, then you start to bleed lap time.

"That's what he's going through now. He's not able to clearly know what's going to happen. Unfortunately, that's the cycle there are in at the moment.”

Fellow Sky F1 pundit Naomi Schiff said Mercedes’ underwhelming competitiveness over a single lap is hard to understand.

"It's not just messing with his mind but our minds as well,” Schiff said.

“On Friday, they were off the pace then in final practice they got out on track and were really quick, so for him to drop out in Q2, it's just kind of 'what's going on?’

"It's been inconsistent for a long time. It's frustrating for them to come out with the same statements about what's wrong with the car.

"They've got to fight through tomorrow. They have shown Sundays still seem to be where the car comes to life a bit more and maximise on Sunday, so hopefully he can come through."