Lewis Hamilton Didn't Know He'd Won A Point And Was Left Completely Flat After Saudi Arabia Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton was left completely bereft after a tough weekend of Formula One for the seven time drivers' world champion, and didn't even know he'd earned a point.

Hamilton had a very poor few days in Saudi Arabia, for the second race of the 2022 F1 season, as Mercedes troubles continued and Red Bull and Ferrari continued to show dominance.

The British driver qualified way down in 16th on Saturday, his worst qualification on pace since starting in 19th at the British GP in 2009, when only Sebastien Buemi was slower than him.

On Sunday, starting 15th after Mick Schumacher's crash in qualifying, he was able to regain some places, eventually finishing 10th, although the untimely closing of the pit stop when both Fernando Alonso and Daniel Ricciardo retired from the race stopped him from pitting when he needed to and could have cost him more places.

When finishing the race, Mercedes engineer Peter Bonnington, known as Bonno to many who have listened to Hamilton on the radio over the years, said to the driver, "OK Lewis, that's P10. Sorry about that."

The 37-year-old didn't even realise that was even worth anything, answering, "Is there even a point for that position?" even though 10th is the final place for a point.

In Hamilton's defence when he started 19th in 2009 there was no points for finishing 10th, with only the top eight picking up points, and the last time he did finish 10th was in 2012, at the Korean GP, and a lot has happened in those 10 years.

A lot is happening to the Mercedes driver at the moment too, as he continues to get over the heartbreak of last season's title race with Max Verstappen.

His current car is not up to the standards of Red Bull and Ferrari and Verstappen got over the team's failure in the first race, the previous weekend, to win the race.

Being so far behind his rival after a testing weekend clearly took it out of Hamilton, as he looked completely bereft and knackered after getting out of the car.

After race, the former McLaren driver said, "Right now, we’re not fighting for the top step. We’re so far off the guys up ahead. We’ve got a lot of work to do.

"I don’t particularly feel like we have made improvements. All I know is that I couldn’t keep up with the Haas in the end.

"The power they have, they came slingshotting past me when I overtook Magnussen earlier in the race."

In week one there had been worries about Mercedes chances at the front of the grid, after qualifying well off the pace of the lead two cars, but the former world champion managed to get on the podium after issues for Verstappen and teammate Sergio Perez.

It wasn't just on the track where it was a tough weekend for Hamilton, who hadn't even wanted the race in Saudi Arabia to go ahead.

There had been a terrorist attack on an oil depot just 10 miles away from the course on Friday, leading to a delay to the start of the Free Practice two session, and discussions about the race going on.

Hamilton was one of those to be against racing during the four hour meeting, in which the driver's initially decided against racing, according to reports, before being persuaded to race.

Speaking about the situation, the Brit said, "So happy the weekend is done. So happy that everyone is safe. I’m just looking forward to getting out of here.

"I just want to go home."

He has previously spoken out about the fact F1 shouldn't be going to Saudi Arabia because of their human rights record, both ahead of last year's first race there and on Friday, before the missile attack.