Las Vegas Grand Prix: Lewis Hamilton says final qualifying ‘obviously not good enough’

Hamilton finished fifth in the third practice session, which started wet and ended on slick tires for the drivers.

But he was uncompetitive from the start in the wet conditions of qualifying, when very wet tires were the correct option for both first sessions.

While trying to make enough time on the final lap to get into the second session, he was also hampered by the yellow flag in the final sector, which meant he had to drop back.

He missed out on the final lap because he crossed the line about a second after the checkered flag that ended the session.

“I had yellow flags in the last turn and when I got to Turn 17 there were yellow flags, so I had to go up and when I got to the line there were red flags,” Hamilton said.

“It was very slippery and the first set of tires didn’t work for us and I had a hard time generating heat in the tires for some reason.

“It’s a shame because the guys did a great job and the car was great in FP3 and I really felt like we had good pace, but then the rain came. Honestly, there’s not much to say.”