Lewis Hamilton admitted he has been struggling with his Mercedes AMG PETRONAS car all weekend long in Abu Dhabi, and was not surprised to see his opportunity for his fiftieth pole position denied to him again by team-mate Nico Rosberg.
Hamilton could only secure second on the grid at the Yas Marina Circuit, and revealed that despite a number of changes to try and feel comfortable with the car, he still has been having some issues with it, but believes he is in a good place to make a challenge for the victory on Sunday.
“I’ve generally been struggling with the car all weekend,” revealed Hamilton. “I’ve changed a lot to try and get around the issues – but I’m still not really feeling comfortable with it.
“I did what I could out there tonight – but Nico was just really quick and did a great job in Q3, so I wasn’t really surprised he did a better lap in the end. It hasn’t been the best run of qualifying sessions for me lately – but I’ve still managed to turn three of those into wins. So, there is still an opportunity – even it is particularly hard to follow through the first sector.
“I will work as hard as I can to have a great start tomorrow and improve from there. I’ve got a lot of support here this weekend and that 44th win is still out there to grab, so I will be working hard for it tomorrow.”
