Lewis Hamilton “not particularly” comfortable with his race pace as Mercedes star finishes P11 in qualifying

Lewis Hamilton is not very confident of his race pace going to into the 2023 Las Vegas GP. Speaking after the qualifying session to the media, including Sportskeeda, the Briton outlined his struggles in the session, where he lacked both confidence and grip due to the changes made to his car.

In the practice sessions on Thursday and Friday, Lewis Hamilton seemed comfortably competitive. However, in qualifying, the Briton was knocked out of the second qualifying session and will start the race from the 11th spot on the grid. He missed out on Q3 by two 10ths of a second while his teammate George Russell was fourth-fastest.

Asked by Sportskeeda if he was comfortable with his race pace in Las Vegas, Lewis Hamilton replied:

“Not particularly, no.”

On being asked where he lacked in qualifying, Lewis Hamillton said:

“Yeah confidence and grip.”

On being further asked if there were changes made between practice sessions and qualifying, the Mercedes champion said:

“There are differences. There are always differences. I just struggled at it. Yesterday was feeling better and was feeling more competitive and then we made some changes overnight and it didn’t feel great today. So this car is bit on the knife edge.”

When asked if the changes made to his car overnight might benefit them in the race, the Briton said:

“I would like to think so. But I would also like to think that the changes we made in qualifying were the right ones and the car was just yeah.”

Explaining the difficulties of the session, Lewis Hamilton claimed he was struggling with tire temperatures and low grip. The British champion insisted that the changes made between the practice sessions and qualifying affected his performance.

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Lewis Hamilton expects the Las Vegas GP to be a tough one

Lewis Hamilton believes the midfield battle will be a tough one during the race. He feels tire management degradation will play a key in the race.

Comparing their tire sets to his Red Bull rival Max Verstappen, he pointed out that they had one lesser set of the medium compound. He believes that there is very little data available on the hard tire and it is difficult to anticipate the performance on it.

On how he expects the track to be for the race, Lewis Hamilton said:

“Well we are all low wing so there’s going to be a lot of deg. There maybe more deg than we know. No ones driven the hard tyre yet so. But Max has two hards, two mediums, we have one medium and two hards. So its going to be a long race. It’s going to be about managing degradation, I would say.”

Previewing the race ahead, he added:

“It’s going to super tough. Tight and short down into Turn 1. Yeah, I mean I’m in the thick of it, so not the best place to be.”

Lewis Hamilton is 32 points behind Sergio Perez who has qualified behind him. However, the British champion might need two top-five finishes, with his Mexican rival finishing behind him to cover the gap.

With Mercedes looking weaker than Red Bull, their bigger worry is losing second place in the constructors' championship, where Ferrari trail them by 20 points and have both their drivers in competitive form at the Las Vegas circuit.