Lewis Hamilton will start Saturday’s sprint race at the Austrian Grand Prix from a lowly 18th.
Hamilton was eliminated in the opening phase of the sprint shootout on Saturday in Spielberg after he had three laps deleted for exceeding track limits.
“That was really bad time usage,” said Hamilton over the radio. “Am I out?”
Noooo. After his lap time was deleted, Lewis is out. He couldn’t get a clean start to his lap. pic.twitter.com/26aPpngkn9
— Mercedes-AMG PETRONAS F1 Team (@MercedesAMGF1) July 1, 2023
“Yes we are,” replied his race engineer Pete Bonnington.
Hamilton had been leading the way in Q1 before he had a hat-trick of laps chalked off by race director Niels Wittich for running all four wheels of his Mercedes over the white line at the final bend.
Hamilton tumbled down the order and was knocked out at the first hurdle of qualifying for only the second time in the last six years.
Today’s 23-lap sprint race takes place at 4:30pm local time (3:30 BST).
