Featured Image Credit: Getty
Topics: Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari, Motorsport
James Taylor
Lewis Hamilton will start Sunday's Las Vegas Grand Prix from the back of the grid after he suffered a shock exit in the opening qualifying session.
The Briton's struggles at Ferrari continued around the wet streets of Las Vegas, as he finished last on pure pace for the first time in his 19-year Formula One career.
Hamilton has found life difficult since making the move to Ferrari at the start of this season.
And he ended Q1 a huge 2.301 seconds slower than teammate Charles Leclerc.
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Despite taking an impressive second-place in Las Vegas last year, Hamilton struggled to cope with the wet conditions during qualifying.
From the start of the session, he lacked confidence and struggled with both understeer and getting temperature into his tyres.
The shock exit will leave Ferrari wondering what went wrong for Hamilton to end up as the slowest car in qualifying after he had shown good pace in FP3.
Sky Sports F1 pundit Anthony Davidson suggested one possible explanation after spotting an incident during Hamilton's warm-up lap.
The seven-time world champion appeared to hit a bollard at Turn 14, which may have become stuck under his Ferrari.
"This was with two minutes to go," Davidson said.
"He’s got, I think this is [Alex] Albon in front of him, but I don’t know where he was placing the car, but he seems to have just run over this cone.
“Maybe he’s looking down at his dash or something, this clip has literally just come in here, I just want to see, is he looking down?
"He’s obviously trying to position, but randomly hits the cone, and does it get stuck under his car?"
Davidson continued: “So that could explain why there was this lack of performance, probably, towards the end for him.
"So he starts to build up that penultimate lap with two minutes to go, but if that cone had found its way under the car and the car did not look good, I must say, through Turn 17.”
After qualifying, Hamilton was asked about the incident, but simply replied that he "couldn't see much" in the conditions.
For Hamilton, it marks another difficult moment in what has turned into one of the toughest seasons of his illustrious career.
He has yet to stand on a Grand Prix podium this year, although he won the Chinese sprint race back in March.
At the last race in Brazil, at a circuit where he has produced several memorable drives, he was forced to retire from the Grand Prix.
Hamilton had hoped to finish the season on a more positive note, but when asked about his Las Vegas qualifying, he admitted it "can't get much worse than that."