Lewis Hamilton said “you couldn’t make it up” after he was eliminated from the first part of qualifying in his final race for Mercedes at the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.
The seven-time champion, who is moving to Ferrari next season after 12 years of unprecedented success at Mercedes, qualified 18th for the race. He will start 16th after penalties for other drivers.
Hamilton was in disbelief at the way his qualifying fell apart, as he collected a bollard dislodged by Kevin Magnussen’s Haas after the Dane tried to get out of the Briton’s way at the end of the first qualifying session.
He told BBC Sport that qualifying “couldn’t have gone worse really”.
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Hamilton added: “Every day and more than ever I’ve just tried to be really present, just trying to take it in because it’s the last time we will be racing and driving in Silver Arrows and it’s all my wins, all my success through my life.
“So every moment is a special moment and I would have loved to get a podium for the guys this weekend and it just didn’t work out.”
Hamilton has won six of his record-equalling seven world titles for Mercedes and taken 84 of his all-time record 105 grand prix victories with the team, who took eight consecutive constructors’ championships from 2014-21.
He had been on target to progress into the second part of qualifying but the bollard lodged under his floor for the final four corners of the lap, making it impossible for the car to perform as intended.
“You couldn’t make it up, you really couldn’t, but it is what it is,” Hamilton said.
“We gave it everything. I gave it everything. The car was in a good place. Every practice session went well, I was ahead of my team-mate all weekend but when we got to qualifying I think as a team we didn’t perform in terms of the timing.
“I was the last car on track and ran out of time ultimately, and then I got the bollard at the end which went under the car and I lost all downforce so it couldn’t have gone worse really.”
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff told Sky Sports: “I just need to apologise to Lewis and to everyone in the team for working so hard to make it a great end for him.
“He was the quicker guy with that kind of set-up that we chose on the car and also to experiment for next year and we totally let him down.
“An idiotic mistake of not going earlier, inexcusable, inexcusable. I have really been so down about what has happened and it maybe summarises the last races we’ve had with him, but this is the worst part of it because it was just idiotic.
“Our most valuable racing driver ever, the most valuable racing driver of this sport gets out in Q1 because we make a mistake and that doesn’t ruin all the legacy we have with him but I can only say sorry to him.”
