Hours after finishing on the podium in the China Sprint, Lewis Hamilton withdrew from qualifying and blamed experimental setup alterations for his exit from qualification.

Hamilton led the Sprint for nine laps before coming in second, and he said Mercedes had made a “huge step, a huge improvement” as he started his Saturday at the Shanghai International Circuit grinning.

Mercedes experiments undo Lewis Hamilton’s progressHowever, a few hours later, Hamilton’s happiness had turned to sorrow when he was unable to advance past Q1, ultimately finishing qualifying in 18th place.

The seven-time world champion struggled to get his Mercedes to slow down for the hairpin, and as a result, he made a mistake that eliminated him from qualifying by 0.116 seconds.

Former Formula One driver Karun Chandhok claims that cost him six tenths of a second, which would have been sufficient for P5 in the first round.

“Massive changes since qualifying,” Hamilton admitted of his struggles. “It wasn’t too bad in some places but I struggled, I couldn’t get it to stop in 14. So it is what it is.”

The 39-year-old disclosed that Mercedes experimented with his W15’s setup, with he and teammate George Russell traveling in different directions. 

 It just didn’t work out for Hamilton.

“This morning, George and I had very similar cars but then this afternoon we’re trying to experiment still with the car,” he said.

“I went one way, a long way, and he went the other way, just to see if we can find anything.

“That’s what we need to do at the moment. But yeah, it didn’t work.”

In the Chinese Grand Prix on Sunday, Hamilton has his work cut out for him in terms of points, as the British driver acknowledged that “it did” grow worse just when he thought it couldn’t get much worse.

“I’ll give it my best shot,” he said of Sunday’s ambitions. “18th is pretty bad. When I was making the set-up changes, I was like, it can’t get any worse, surely, and it did!

“So shit happens.”

Lewis Hamilton responds to Nico Rosberg criticism

Hamilton responded to criticism that he hadn’t done enough to keep Max Verstappen at bay during the Sprint as well. 

 At the hairpin on lap nine, Verstappen passed Hamilton, who was leading the race, and Hamilton’s former teammate Nico Rosberg chastised him for not defending. 

“Lewis, shut the door and act aggressively. Simply shut it properly. It’s unfortunate that he was able to pass him so quickly,” the 2016 World Champion said to Sky Sports. 

 In response, Hamilton declared that he would not allow Verstappen to stay in the lead in the raging RB20.

According to Total-Motorsport.com, he stated, 

“I didn’t even put up a fight for Max because he was coming at a serious, serious pace advantage that I knew he would he would get me.”