Hamilton: We didn’t expect to lose so much

In the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, Mercedes drivers will start from the third row. Lewis Hamilton is only a few thousandths ahead of team-mate George Russell, but is disappointed that they have lost too much to the pole-holder.

Lewis Hamilton (5th): “Of course the characteristics of that circuit helped to win the winning double in Brazil, and for Abu Dhabi we understood it was going to be difficult for us here, but still we didn’t expect to give way to pole time by as much as three tenths. That’s why the results of qualifying surprised us a bit, because we lost so much to Red Bull – precisely because of the lack of speed on the straights.

In any case, I gave everything and will now prepare for tomorrow’s race. Unfortunately the vertical build of the car returns on this track and of course we lose quite a bit on the straights. In addition, we have problems with the brakes all year round, the brake discs heat up in different ways, causing the car to pull to the side when braking.

For example, I start to make a left turn and the car clearly pulls to the right, and this is far from an ideal situation … “

George Russell (6th): “After the win in Brazil I am in a good mood, but all this will soon be a thing of the past, because you have to look ahead and prepare for the next race. And now I think we have to analyze everything and understand what we could have done better in today’s qualifying, but I hardly remember those glorious moments that I experienced a week ago.

We are here to fight again on track and of course I want to repeat the success this weekend, for which I will try to start as best as possible. Although of course it will be difficult to claim victory because Max Verstappen and Red Bull are very fast, so we can only hope that there are some incidents ahead.