World champion qualifies only third in Singapore after disrupted build-up amid car and set-up problems; Hamilton now hopes night race's famous unpredicability helps him
Monday 19 September 2016 14:17, UK
Lewis Hamilton is unsure whether the set-up problems that have hampered his Singapore GP will allow him to take the fight to pole-sitting team-mate Nico Rosberg in Sunday's race.
The world champion experienced a disrupted build-up to a qualifying session in which he finished behind his Mercedes team-mate and Red Bull's Daniel Ricciardo. Rosberg's advantage over Hamilton was seven tenths of a second - by far the largest of the season.
In Practice Two on Friday, Hamilton missed the race simulations when a hydraulics fault struck his W07. Then in practice on Saturday the Briton's car developed a suspension problem which affected its braking and compromised his qualifying preparations.
Although both problems had been resolved in time for qualifying, Hamilton admitted he struggled to string a competitive series of laps together with his W07 not in its set-up "sweet spot".
And asked if those same issues would not affect his race, Hamilton said: "I didn't do the long run yesterday so I don't know.
"I might luck in and it might be just right for tomorrow. It doesn't sound particularly likely that that's the case. It might be the case that it's just not great and I might still be able to at least hold my position.
"I will find out [in the race], but the time lost yesterday has proved more valuable than I thought."
Mercedes chief Toto Wolff said the lack of sustained track mileage meant the team had "failed" to find the correct set-up for Hamilton's car.
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"Lewis's car was not where it should have been after free practice one," said Wolff. "As you know, it's not easy to find the right compromise between the set-up of the car, getting the tyres in the right window and giving the driver a comfortable feeling.
"And here we have failed - he didn't have a car today which was able to extract all of the performance. The set-up was not right."
Hamilton added: "I only really had four laps to find ultimate balance. Ultimately, I think I did the best job I could with what I had but it wasn't going in a spectacular direction.
"Sometimes it happens."
The triple world champion holds a slender two-point championship advantage over Rosberg heading in to Sunday's race, but his team-mate will regain the title lead if he converts his dominant pole into race victory.
"I've kind of been on the back foot all year so there's no real difference to me," Hamilton admitted. "I'll do the best I can from there and try and fight my way through.
"It's a very hard track to overtake so you're usually stuck where you are but there's lots of safety cars at this race so lots can happen."
