Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton ‘incredibly disappointed in myself’ with Austrian Grand Prix qualifying crash

Lewis Hamilton said that he was ‘incredibly disappointed’ to have crashed his Mercedes in Friday’s qualifying for the Austrian Grand Prix.

Hamilton’s team believed that he was on course for second or third and had impressed in the day’s action until he spun out and damaged his vehicle.

Later in Q3 his teammate George Russell followed suit, and Hamilton will start tomorrow’s Sprint race in 10th after his early exit

Speaking on Sky Sports, Hamilton said he was physically fine but disappointed.

“I’m OK,” he said. “It was a big hit, but I’m okay.

“Incredibly disappointed in myself and so sorry to the team who worked so hard to put this car together – I never like to damage it. We were fighting for a top three, I think. I don’t have an answer for it.”

Despite the crash, he said of his performance until then that: “I’m encouraged for sure, I can see our performance; we didn’t expect it to be as close as that today, so that’s a huge positive.

“But, you know, I’m really quite far back. I don’t know what is possible from there, but it is a sprint race, so I hope I can make up for some lost time.”

Meanwhile, Red Bull’s Sergio Perez, who finished fourth subject to an investigation by race authorities, claimed: “It was a tricky day. Already from FP1 things didn’t feel great, bit of understanding needed from our side.

“I wasn’t able to get into the rhythm but obviously now it’s the sprint, and then a long race ahead, so we have to keep our head down and push forward to try and make some progress for Sunday’s race.”

Lando Norris will start in 15th, but had problems with a burning car in first practice.

“It’s just been a frustrating day,” he admitted. “We should be higher up with this car at the minute, but we are not, so long weekend still to go and got to make up for it.”