Sky F1 pundits deliver 'HARSH' Hamilton criticism after disastrous session

Mercedes star Lewis Hamilton has come in for criticism following his performance in sprint qualifying at the Austrian Grand Prix.

In a shake-up of the usual Formula 1 weekend schedule, Friday afternoon saw qualifying action take place at the Red Bull Ring ahead of Saturday's sprint race.

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After Mercedes' recent resurgence in performance, expectations surrounding the Brackley-based outfit and their star driver were high heading into the weekend in Spielberg. However, Hamilton disappointed, qualifying P6 - almost six-tenths shy of Max Verstappen at the top of the order.

After the session, the seven-time world champion admitted himself it had been a 'disastrous' qualifying in which he had put in 'bad laps'. In SQ1, Hamilton had a lap time deleted due to track limits, whilst he also made further mistakes as the session progressed.

Bernie Collins 'harsh' on Lewis Hamilton

In a slight mitigation of where he ended up, Hamilton did encounter a bit of traffic towards the end of his lap, which could have cost him a couple of tenths. However, Sky Sports F1 pundit Bernie Collins offered a rather critical assessment of the Mercedes star's session.

“Potentially," Collins replied when asked if Hamilton's struggles were due to the nuances of the track and traffic. "But they made some different decisions compared to everyone else if we’re being harsh.

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"Lewis didn’t run the soft, the only driver not to run the soft in FP1. He ran the hard, so then going into sprint quali, he has to make a step to the medium and then another step to the soft.

“Now arguably, these are the best drivers in the world so he can make that step, but nobody else felt that they could. So, they’ll definitely go back and look at it. Was it the right or wrong decision? We never get the right answer.”

Naomi Schiff adds to Hamilton misery

Collins was not the only one with a critical assessment of Hamilton and Mercedes' session, with fellow pundit Naomi Schiff believing that the seven-time champion's session spiralled after an early mistake in SQ1.

“I think we all had a higher expectation for Mercedes as a package today, but I think as Ant [Davidson] pointed out there, it just seemed like from the get-go, with that moment that he had on the exit of turn one, he just sent himself sort of in a spiral when they were chasing their tails, kind of put themselves under the thumb and were having to react," Schiff said live on Sky Sports.

“You’ve obviously got to put a new set of mediums on for SQ1, a new set for SQ2 and then a used or new set for SQ3. But obviously, you can't then put on a second set of mediums, so he’s obviously lost the peak moment of the tyre.

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"He was chasing his tail, there was traffic as well and then from then on, you’re probably just a little bit frazzled. It just all didn’t really come together so I wonder how much performance is still in it had they have had the perfect run.

"But ultimately, did they put themselves in that position by putting themselves in not the optimum position coming into it and more comfortable with the general setup?"

Schiff continued, also questioning whether the team had found the right set-up.

"I wonder if they’re struggling with that [set-up] too, because we did see Lewis have quite a few moments in FP1 as well.

"I don’t know if they’re happy with the balance of the car as well.”

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