Qualifying for the Turkish Grand Prix was quite a dramatic event with talking points galore. But one of the most interesting topics pertained to Mercedes and their lackluster showing on Saturday. Lewis Hamilton surprisingly didn’t take pole, instead he’ll start the race in P6!

Nobody had anticipated this, and no one saw it coming. Hamilton’s teammate Valtteri Bottas didn’t fare well either. The Finn will start the race in P9.

Intriguingly, however, Hamilton seemed in a rather jubilant mood after qualifying got over, cracking a joke about his disappointing performance.

He said, “What’s a surprise? You haven’t been watching all weekend? I was 20th before, this is an improvement.”

Lewis Hamilton talks about his qualifying performance in Turkey

Hamilton, like most others, struggled for any sort of grip at the wet Istanbul Park circuit. He also seemed to have a problem warming up the tires and only barely made it out of Q1.

Asked about what he made of his performance, Lewis said, “There ain’t no finding no grip. I’m not really sure what to say. We tried the hardest and did the best we could, and that was the fastest we could go.

“The track feels terrible, it’s just like driving on ice. For whatever reason, some people can get their tires switched on better than us. I think ultimately we were all struggling out there, some were better than others. I did the best I could, I didn’t spin, I didn’t make any mistakes.

“So I’m genuinely happy. I did everything I could with what I had.”

Hamilton came to Turkey in the hopes of sealing his 7th championship title. But after his qualifying outing, it may seem possible that the celebrations will have to be put on hold until Bahrain at least.

However, all hope is not lost just yet. After all, it’s possible that we could have a dry race tomorrow and in dry conditions, Mercedes and Hamilton would be a different beast to deal with.

It’ll be interesting to see how the race pans out, rain or no rain. It certainly seems like we could have a memorable race with a surprising result.

Turkey has definitely lived up to the hype so far, everyone would like to see more of the same tomorrow.