He was 1.4 seconds slower than Ferrari's Carlos Sainz's fastest lap and 0.6 seconds slower than new teammate George Russell.
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Lewis Hamilton, the seven-time world champion, was eliminated from the first round of qualifying for the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix on Saturday. The Briton, whose once-dominant Mercedes team has been caught off guard by the sport’s radical new rules, could only manage the 16th fastest time, missing out by 0.087 seconds on progressing to the second part of the session.
He was 1.4 seconds slower than Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz’s fastest lap and 0.6 seconds slower than new teammate George Russell, who finished fourth. As the news was relayed to him over the team radio, the Brit apologised. The last time the 37-year-old failed to advance past the first round of the Brazilian Grand Prix was in 2017.
Read More – Saudi Arabian GP: Charles Leclerc goes fastest in FP3 ahead of Verstappen, Perez
n the final practise session for the 2022 FIA Formula 1 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc beat out Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez. The Monegasque driver set a best time of 1:29.735 to edge out defending world champion Verstappen by 0.033s. The final one-hour practise session began quietly, but the Ferraris of Leclerc and Sainz soon enlivened the proceedings as they battled for soft tyre supremacy. Leclerc took the lead with a lap time of 1:31.052, but Sainz surged ahead by four hundredths of a second. Leclerc then added more time to his lap, clocking in at 1:30.139.
Red Bull kept its powder dry almost until the halfway mark, when Perez moved to second, splitting the Ferraris and lying 0.152s behind the leaders. Verstappen, on the other hand, put in a conservative first flier to finish fourth. After settling into a rhythm, the world champion lit up the timing screens with a lap of 1:29.768s, four tenths faster than Leclerc. After that, Pierre Gasly moved up to third in his AlphaTauri. However, the French driver’s session was cut short shortly after the half-hour mark when he stopped at the pity exit with a suspected driveshaft issue.
