F1 data: Huge Lewis Hamilton time loss discovered after freak bollard incident

Lewis Hamilton suffered a shocking elimination in Q1 in Abu Dhabi GP qualifying in what is his final race weekend with Mercedes.

The Mercedes driver had a moment of bad luck, more similar to that of a videogame when a bollard hit by Kevin Magnussen got caught in the W15’s underfloor. But was it really the cause of his elimination?

F1 data analysis: Lewis Hamilton’s Q1 exit on final Mercedes appearance

Hamilton had been improving his times from his first Q1 attempt in the second sector and it looked as though his place in Q2 would be secured in the final moments of Q1.

However, a bollard that Magnussen hit on his way through the inside of the apex Turn 14 so as not to hinder drivers like Hamilton coming through on their push lap went into the tarmac and the Mercedes driver was unfortunate enough to get it caught on the floor of his car.

How much did this affect his final lap time?

With an outlap preparation just at the limit and a lot of traffic, Hamilton benefited from, for example, two Jack Doohan slipstreaming effects which gave him a higher top speed than his first Q1 try for the long two straights of the Yas Marina track.

This helped him to improve his time in Sector 2 by more than two tenths of a second over his first Q1 attempt.

However, traffic ultimately proved to be a greater enemy than a friend.

Already in Sector 3, when he encountered Magnussen and the bollard under his car, his performance was severely harmed for the final corners.

Hamilton lost traction and handling, which resulted in an approximate loss of almost three tenths of a second, causing his fourth Q1 elimination this year.

Really, without the misfortune of the bollard, Hamilton should have been comfortably through to Q2.

If we look at the ideal qualifying lap times, we see that Hamilton should have achieved a 1:23.678, the same time that team-mate George Russell achieved in Q1 to comfortably make the cut with a P9.

Hamilton was faster than Russell until he encountered traffic in the hotel section of the Yas Marina circuit and then the bollard.

Before reaching the final sector, Hamilton was almost two tenths quicker than his team-mate, thanks in particular to the higher top speed on the straights.

However, the big time loss due to the bollard caused him to lose more than four tenths of a second to Russell in Sector 3.

This disastrous last sector condemned Hamilton to miss out on beating Fernando Alonso, who finally made the cut in P15 and would later also make it to Q3 to finish P8.

Tomorrow, Hamilton will face his last race with Mercedes in the worst possible way: forced to come back from behind.

It is certainly not the farewell the British driver dreamed of after years of glory with the Silver Arrow brand.

Even so, the Mercedes W15’s race pace should allow him to reach the points zone to add one last reward to the ample haul of his 12 seasons with the team that has allowed him to fight for and eventually win six world championship titles.

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