Lewis Hamilton to start 16th at Saudi Arabian GP after Mick Schumacher accident

Lewis Hamilton will start a lowly 16th in Sunday’s Saudi Arabian Grand Prix as Mick Schumacher was airlifted to hospital following a terrifying 160mph crash.

As Sergio Perez raced to pole position under the thousands of bulbs that light up the Jeddah street circuit, seven-time world champion Hamilton failed to make it out of Q1 in one of the worst qualifying displays of his record-breaking Formula One career.

Hamilton and his Mercedes team have struggled to get on top of the sport’s new regulations, but nobody here would have predicted the grid’s most decorated driver would fall at the first hurdle.

A disconsolate Hamilton – nearly seven tenths slower than George Russell in the other Mercedes, who ended up qualifying sixth – replied: “I am so sorry, guys.”

Charles Leclerc will start second ahead of Ferrari team-mate Carlos Sainz with world champion Max Verstappen fourth.

With two minutes of Q1 remaining, Hamilton, who started from pole and won in Jeddah last year, said: “Can’t seem to improve, man…are we at risk right now?”

His race engineer, Peter Bonnington replied: “Affirm, we are at risk.”

It marked the first time Hamilton had failed to get out of Q1 on pure speed since the 2009 British Grand Prix.

Following his early exit from qualifying, Hamilton told French television: “I’m looking forward to going home.”

He later issued an apology to his team and raised the prospect of starting from the pit lane in order to make radical overnight changes to his car.

“Maybe I will start from the pit lane and change the car so it doesn’t handle the way it just did.

“I just apologise to my team. Everybody works so hard and when you don’t deliver for them it is gutting.”

As Hamilton spoke in the television pen, the focus turned to Schumacher following the 23-year-old German’s terrifying crash.

Mick, the son of seven-time world champion Michael Schumacher, lost control of his Haas as he rode the kerbs through Turn 12 and slammed into the concrete wall on the opposite side of the circuit.

The force of the impact tore the front wing and both wheels off the right-hand side of his car before he came to a standstill.

The television cameras immediately cut away and no replays were shown. An ambulance was soon on the scene as Schumacher’s mechanics stood in the Haas garage with their hands on their heads.

But following several minutes without any updates, news eventually filtered through that Schumacher was conscious.

Schumacher’s machine was so badly damaged in the accident that it split in two as it was towed away by a recovery vehicle.

Schumacher was taken to the medical centre and then airlifted to the King Fahad Armed Forces Hospital seven miles south of the circuit for “further precautionary check-ups”.

Haas also said Schumacher spoke to his mother, Corinna.

Schumacher, who was discharged from hospital, will be forced to miss the race owing to the severity of the damage to his car.

He later took to Twitter to confirm he was feeling fine.

“Hi everyone, I just wanted to say that I’m OK. Thank you for the kind messages. The car felt great. Haas, we’ll come back stronger,” he wrote.

A day on from a missile strike on an oil refinery 12 miles east of the track, the drivers – some of whom signalled their intention not to take part in Sunday’s race during an extraordinary four-hour meeting on Friday night – were back on track.

And following Hamilton’s early demise, it was Perez who stole pole, edging out Leclerc by just 0.025 seconds. Verstappen, who said he had “zero grip” was 0.261 seconds slower than his Red Bull team-mate.