Lewis Hamilton rules self out Formula 1 title 

After a torrid few days in Imola, Lewis Hamilton has conceded that he is no longer fighting for the championship this year. And the weekend isn’t even over yet. 

A dismal qualifying on Friday evening, when he qualified 13th and Mercedes failed to get a car into the final qualifying session for the first time in ten years, led to a forgettable sprint race in which he finished 14th.

So dire was the performance by Mercedes that Toto Wolff, the team principal, declared the whole weekend a “write-off”.

The Emilia Romagna Grand Prix is hosting the first sprint of the season — 21 laps with no pitstops and teams free to choose whatever tyre they want, which led to the rejigged schedule.

Max Verstappen had started on the pole and finished victorious to start Sunday’s race at the front.

His championship rival, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, will start alongside him on the front row after finishing second to extend his lead to 40 points.

Leclerc had been leading into the first corner but lost the advantage on the penultimate lap after a great duel.

It was only four months ago that Hamilton was fighting for the championship. That is now a distant memory as he languishes out of the points on race day and is already 50 points behind Leclerc — the equivalent of two race wins and seemingly insurmountable given Ferrari’s form.

Formula One is only halfway through the fourth weekend of the record-breaking 23-race season, but already the seven-times world champion knows he will not be winning his eighth this year.'

He was realistic in his assessment of his situation when he said that “ultimately, we haven’t got it right this year”. “We’re not fighting for this championship,” he added, “but we’re fighting to understand the car and improve and progress through the year. That’s all we can hope for now.

“We stick together, we try to motivate everyone and this is the situation that we are faced with but everyone has their heads down, everyone is working as hard as they can.”