Disaster for Lewis Hamilton as Mercedes superstar set for a pitlane start in the F1 Azerbaijan GP

In a major blow for Lewis Hamilton, the Mercedes driver is set for a pitlane start in the 2024 F1 Azerbaijan GP due to the team picking up a new power unit. The driver was initially supposed to start the race in P7, where he qualified on Saturday, but by the looks of it, The Race reports that the team has decided to take the penalty here.

This makes Lewis Hamilton's race even more complicated, as although there have been races in Baku where drivers have made their way through the field, it's not been easy in the last few years. These new generations of cars have not produced the best on-track action around the track, and the long DRS trains could prove to be a big concern.

Lewis Hamilton did not have the best qualifying either on Saturday, as he was almost half a second off on his teammate George Russell's time. Talking to F1TV, the driver had revealed that tire temperatures proved to be a major challenge. He said,

"Qualifying was disappointing as we had a good day yesterday and I thought we could be in the fight for the front two rows. Unfortunately, I was struggling to get the tyres working and that is what it is all about. We will analyse why that was as a team and hopefully make improvements moving forward."

He added,

"The aim is to move forward tomorrow, and I am staying positive that we can do so. It is not always easy to progress here, but we have a slightly different tyre strategy to others which may help us. We will also have to look after the tyres as it is easy to suffer with the rears. If we can do so, then hopefully we can have a better day than we had today."

Lewis Hamilton's teammate George Russell starts the race in P5

Lewis Hamilton's teammate George Russell had a somewhat better run in qualifying and will start the race in P5. The Mercedes driver also struggled with tire temperature issues but for him, it was a result of the Alex Albon incident before the start of the final runs in Q3 that led to it.

The Mercedes driver will start the race on the third row with Max Verstappen alongside him. Looking back at his qualifying, George was more or less happy with what he'd achieved, as he said,

"I was pretty happy with my laps in qualifying. They all felt strong but unfortunately, we didn’t quite have the pace to fight for pole position. We topped the times in FP3, but we knew that this flattered us a little bit, having run right at the very end of the session. We thought we would be in a battle just outside of the top three. It is therefore a little frustrating to be half-a-tenth from P3 but P5 isn’t a bad place to start from."

Going into the summer break with Lewis Hamilton having two wins and George Russell picking up one, Mercedes would not have hoped for such a reversal of fortunes. It remains to be seen what Lewis can achieve in the race from his starting position.