Lewis Hamilton described his Azerbaijan Grand Prix as a “bad race” after struggling to bring the tyres into the correct operating window throughout the weekend. The Ferrari driver started sixth and finished in the same position in Baku, never seriously threatening the leading positions.
The result capped a difficult weekend for the seven-time world champion, who had already experienced similar tyre problems when qualifying sixth for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Lewis Hamilton finishes where he started in Baku
Lewis Hamilton was unable to make significant progress during the race. He did manage to overtake Lando Norris, but later lost a position to Andrea Kimi Antonelli in what was otherwise a relatively straightforward Grand Prix.
Hamilton eventually crossed the line sixth, while Charles Leclerc finished fourth as Ferrari again missed the podium. The complete outcome of the race can be found in our Azerbaijan Grand Prix race report.
The result leaves Lewis Hamilton third in the Drivers’ Championship, but the gap to the two drivers ahead of him has increased. George Russell is now 37 points clear, while Andrea Kimi Antonelli has extended his advantage over the Ferrari driver to 103 points. With those margins continuing to grow, Hamilton’s world championship hopes now appear effectively over.
Hamilton: ‘I simply lacked pace’
Lewis Hamilton did not look for excuses when speaking to Sky UK after the race.
“For me it was quite a bad race, I wasn’t going anywhere. I couldn’t keep up with those ahead of me and I was struggling to pull away from those behind. I simply lacked pace. And more generally, throughout the whole weekend I couldn’t get the tyres to work. I was trying to warm them up, but they just didn’t want to respond.”
Tyre behaviour was therefore at the centre of Hamilton’s difficulties. The problem was not constant, however, because towards the end of his opening stint the tyres suddenly began to deliver the performance he had been searching for.
Ferrari tyres came alive late in Hamilton’s first stint
“Towards the end of the first stint in the race, the tyres suddenly started working. I started setting the same lap times as everyone ahead of me, or at least a couple of them,” the 41-year-old explained.
The improvement disappeared after his pit stop. Hamilton said the new set never came alive during the final stint, leaving him sliding rather than being able to extract consistent grip.
“After the tyre change, they never responded for the entire final stint. I was just sliding around,” Hamilton concluded.
The contrast between the two phases of the race underlined how sensitive Hamilton’s performance was to getting the tyres into their working window. Compound choices, stint lengths and tyre performance from the Grand Prix can also be explored through the F1 Tyre & Stint Analysis.
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