Lewis Hamilton says he has “no hope” for the Brazilian Grand Prix after being eliminated in Q1 in 16th place having struggled with an “undrivable” W15.

Hamilton’s Brazilian Grand Prix, for which he’s wearing an Ayrton Senna-inspired helmet, is not going to plan with the Briton potentially leaving the Interlagos circuit without a single point on the board.

Lewis Hamilton: I’m not going to be negative, it is what it is

At least that’s what he’s expecting after qualifying.

Hamilton was 11th in Saturday’s Sprint before a deluge hit the circuit shortly after with heavy rain and standing water forcing the FIA to postpone qualifying until Sunday morning.

Although it was still raining, the conditions were much better and Hamilton was quickly out on track only to find himself in the drop zone when Q1 was red-flagged for Franco Colapinto’s Turn 3 crash. His team-mate George Russell was also in the bottom five and Mercedes were under pressure as more rain began to fall.

Despite twice improving to break out of the drop zone, Hamilton was repeatedly knocked back into the bottom five and finished qualifying early, down in 16th place.

“Damn car!” he lamented to Mercedes over the radio while Russell progressed with the third fastest time.

But as Russell stayed on track to qualify his W15 in second place behind Lando Norris, Hamilton was speaking to the media about his short session.

“I’m not going to be negative,” he said. “It is what it is.

“I don’t have any hopes for the race. Just going to do what I can do.

“With the car I have right now, it’s the worst I’ve ever driven so I probably won’t be going very far with it.

“Maybe I’ll start from the pit lane and… I don’t know, we’ll see, but it’s undrivable.”

Although Hamilton is expecting to line up in 15th place given Max Verstappen’s penalty, or even in the pit lane, that could change as five drivers – Colapinto, Carlos Sainz, Lance Stroll, Fernando Alonso and Alex Albon – crashed in qualifying.

All of them except Colapinto qualified ahead of Hamilton but with a short break between qualifying and the race, just three hours as qualifying ran long, their teams are in a race against time to repair their cars for the Brazilian Grand Prix.