Hamilton sets shock goal after Mexican “headflip”

Lewis Hamilton claims he “just wants to see the end” of the Mexico City Grand Prix after his Mercedes “overturned” in qualifying.

Hamilton will line up at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez in sixth place after being overtaken by teammate George Russell, who was driving an older specification Mercedes following his accident in Austin.

A promising FP3 session came to nothing as Ferrari duo Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc and title rivals Max Verstappen and Lando Norris also overtook the seven-time champion, who suffered a freak spin last time out in the US.

Looking ahead to the 71-lap race, Hamilton indicated that he hoped to see the race through following further problems with the Mercedes car.

“I just want to get to the end of the race this time,” he told the media RacingNews365.

“We only have three-wheelers and the ride height moves up and down 15 millimeters and when that happens it’s difficult.”

“When we got to qualifying I had no tail and it was like it flipped upside down. It was very strange, but it will be interesting to learn about the car as I am in the process of upgrading, and it should be faster.”

“We definitely took a good step in FP3. I thought we had some balance, but we were still six tenths behind the fastest car, so the bigger wing should create more downforce.”

Hamilton’s setup problems

The two-time Mexico winner also added that the only change to his W15 was a small change to the rear wing before qualifying began, but he was unable to make any major changes to the setup.

“FP3 felt decent, it felt like we were on the right track, so I decided not to make any changes (before qualifying),” he added.

“All we did was add more rear wings and I thought, ‘Okay, let’s leave it at that.’

“We couldn’t really do much in development with the setup changes to advance the car, the performance is what it is.”