"Disgraceful" farewell

Wolff after Hamilton’s retirement: “That’s inexcusable!”

After Lewis Hamilton's early qualifying exit, Toto Wolff (right) takes his team to task.(Bild: GEPA)

Lewis Hamilton's last qualifying session for Mercedes ended in bitter disappointment on Saturday in Abu Dhabi. "It's absolutely inexcusable what happened," said Team Principal Toto Wolff.

The record-breaking world champion had already retired in 18th place in phase one after a bollard or guide cylinder driven over by Haas driver Kevin Magnussen got under his car on his last lap. "It is what it is. Hopefully this is the end of my run of bad luck," said Hamilton, who will be driving for Ferrari from next season.

Wolff furious: "It's a disgrace!"
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff publicly apologized to his departing star driver. "It's Lewis' last race with us and we're being clever to send him out so late. I am so angry. It's a shame to say goodbye to Lewis like this." According to the Viennese, it was "an idiotic mistake not to drive out earlier".

And Wolff added: "That shouldn't happen in a world-class team, especially as Lewis was our faster driver today. We wanted to give him a worthy farewell. You have to play it safe and not stand at the back of the queue and try to be super clever."

Weak qualifying record in farewell season
Hamilton has won six of his seven world championship titles in twelve years with Mercedes. In his farewell season, however, the 39-year-old only won five out of 24 qualifying duels with compatriot George Russell. His stable rival finished sixth this time.