Hamilton out of Q1 in Austin, qualifies 19th

AUSTIN — Lewis Hamilton qualified down in 19th for Sunday’s U.S. Grand Prix, complaining his car was “pretty terrible” to drive after Mercedes was forced into car changes.

Hamilton was sixth in the sprint race on Saturday before getting knocked out of the first qualifying session for Sunday’s race.

The seven-time world champion said his car never felt right after an issue he encountered at the start of the sprint.

“It’s been pretty terrible,” Hamilton said. “The car felt great yesterday, so obviously came really optimistic for today. Something failed on the front suspension literally as we pulled away from the line for the formation lap, and I had that through the race.

“So they figured that out, they changed the corner. And it felt like a mess, obviously, through qualifying.”

Hamilton said he will channel the spirit of his younger self to try and make something happen.

“There’s not going to be a lot going on. I started in karts with a pretty bad go-kart and used to come through the field, so I’ll see if I can do that tomorrow.”

He added: “Yesterday all of a sudden we were looking really quick. I don’t know where that went. But we’ll keep pushing.”

After qualifying, Hamilton said he wanted to start from the pit lane so the team can alter his setup before the race start.

Mercedes teammate George Russell crashed out of qualifying, ending the session early.