Mercedes ‘overreaction’ before Mexico City Grand Prix qualifying on Lewis Hamilton’s car

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For the fifteenth time this season, Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton was out-qualified by teammate George Russell ahead of the Mexico City Grand Prix.

Lewis Hamilton will start Sunday’s race in Mexico from sixth, lining up alongside George Russell on the third row of the grid.

Mercedes team principal Toto Wolff looked visibly frustrated with Hamilton’s performance in qualifying, something the seven-time world champion has admitted has been his Achilles heel all season.

Hamilton suffered during qualifying at the previous race in Austin after being knocked out in Q1 and will at least be in contention for a podium finish at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez even if McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull all have a significant pace advantage.

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However, two big crashes for Russell in the past seven days meant Hamilton should have had a significant advantage over his teammate going into qualifying.

Russell lost his access to Mercedes’s newest parts when he crashed in qualifying at the United States Grand Prix before a huge impact during Friday’s second practice session saw him revert to using some parts that were introduced in Miami.

This has left Hamilton perplexed as to why his teammate still has such a clear advantage over him over one lap.

Bernie Collins was speaking on Sky Sports F1 after qualifying and addressed Hamilton’s struggles compared to Russell.

She shared what she spotted Mercedes doing in the garage before the session started that might explain his issue.

Mercedes pre-qualifying behaviour might explain Lewis Hamilton’s Mexican Grand Prix frustration

Asked why Hamilton might be struggling compared to Russell, Collins said: “I don’t know if he is trying to say that, but definitely there’s been, we’ve seen it so much, every time we’re in the pit lane in between P3 and qualifying, or regularly when you’re in the pit lane between P3 and qualifying, they’re tearing Lewis’s car apart to make some changes, and George is pretty happy.

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“Now, I don’t know if that’s an overreaction between Lewis and the engineers to whatever’s happening in P3 and George is just more settled.

“We talk a lot about letting the track come to you, let the grip change, you don’t need to turn the world around based on the P3 standings.

“So, maybe there’s a little bit of that, and such fine margins here, a little bit of tyre temperature, a little bit of brake temperature makes all the difference and it’s getting all of that together working.

“I don’t think there’s any malice on behalf of anyone in that team, they’re working so hard to get it together, they want a good year for Lewis.”

Lewis Hamilton left driving slightly damaged car during Mexico City Grand Prix after Kimi Antonelli incident

Hamilton started the race weekend in Mexico on the back foot after missing FP1.

He was one of five drivers who handed their cars to rookies taking part in the first one-hour session of the weekend, with Kimi Antonelli taking part in his second F1 run.

Antonelli drove well although he admitted not racing at 100% as he wanted to avoid the crash he suffered on his debut at Monza.

However, Antonelli was the reason for one of the two red flags in FP1 after hitting some debris on the run down to the first corner.

Hamilton is still driving a slightly damaged car as a result of this, although it’s not expected to impact his performance.

All eyes are now on whether he can take advantage of his slightly better race performance compared to Russell to finish ahead of his teammate once again.