"Ah, retire the car man": Lewis Hamilton begs Mercedes to retire mid-race after a shambolic F1 Qatar GP
Lewis Hamilton surprisingly asked Mercedes to let him retire from the Qatar Grand Prix mid-race on Sunday. The seven-time world champion was going through the pit lane after he incurred a penalty. Hamilton, understandably devastated, asked his race engineer if he could withdraw from the race.
After a scintillating display of performance in Las Vegas, Hamilton's Qatar GP outing turned out to be catastrophic. The Mercedes driver received not one, but two penalties, and suffered a puncture to see his race get ruined right before his eyes.
The British driver started the race from P6, but after two penalties and a puncture, he was down in the last. Witnessing his fall from grace, Hamilton asked if he could retire his W-15 as he was crossing the Mercedes garage in the pit lane.
Prior to his pit lane drive-through penalty, Hamilton's race engineer Peter Bonnington said:
"Ok Lewis we’ve got a drive through penalty for speeding in the pit lane. It looks like you forgot to press the button on that first time behind the safety car…”
As Hamilton was inside the pit lane, and he knew he would come out last, he asked Bono:
“Ah, retire the car man…”
However, Bonnington did not entertain Hamilton's request. He said on the radio:
"Negative, negative."
Lewis Hamilton incurred the first timed penalty after he had a false start to his race. And then he had a puncture caused by debris on the track and was forced to pit.
As he was coming out of his pit stop, Hamilton was reportedly speeding. It incurred him another drive-through penalty. Notably, all these have come amid Hamilton's issues with his "broken" car.
Lewis Hamilton struggled with Mercedes throughout Qatar GP
Lewis Hamilton struggled with his car throughout the Qatar Grand Prix. The seven-time world champion qualified for the Spirit in P7 and finished the Sprint in P6.
His Grand Prix qualifying did not turn out to be a brilliant one either as he could only manage P6. However, after a series of penalties and on-track incidents, he finished his race in P12, outside of the points.
This was Lewis Hamilton's penultimate race for Mercedes as the seven-time world champion will part ways with the Silver Arrows at the end of this season. Formula 1 moves to the United Arab Emirates next week for the final race of the season.