Hamilton ‘on a knife-edge’ as he misses Q3 in Australia

Lewis Hamilton says the Mercedes car is on a knife-edge at the Australian Grand Prix after being eliminated in Q2 for the first time this season.

Both Mercedes drivers were struggling in qualifying after solid performances in final practice, with George Russell only advancing to Q3 by 0.059s. The car Russell edged out was Hamilton who had struggled to improve on his final run, and the seven-time world champion says the car had felt much more competitive prior to the start of the qualifying session.

“Every outing you learn something new,” Hamilton said. “P3 felt really good for us and I was really feeling optimistic going into qualifying. But then, I don’t know if it was the wind picking up — the wind picked up quite a bit, same as yesterday — and then the car is just so much more on a knife-edge here.