Lewis Hamilton demands to RETIRE in meltdown at Qatar Grand Prix as time at Mercedes heads for sad ending

LEWIS HAMILTON had a meltdown and rowed with his team after trying to quit the Qatar Grand Prix early.

The seven-time world champion threw his toys out of the pram as he suffered a puncture and a penalty in his second to last race in his Mercedes.

Hamilton’s race engineer Peter Bonnington said on the team radio: “We have got a drive-through penalty in the pit lane.

“It looks like you forgot to press the button on that first time behind the Safety Car.”

Hamilton said: “Retire the car, mate. Park the car, mate.

Bonnington replied: “Negative.”

Meanwhile his old rival from 2021, Max Verstappen, roared “simply lovely” as he produced a fierce drive to overtake pole-sitter George Russell and cross the line six-seconds ahead of Charles Leclerc, while Oscar Piastri came in third.

Lando Norris almost snuck into the lead himself at the start but Verstappen just managed to defend his position going through Turn Two.

The safety car was called into action when chaos at the start saw Nico Hulkenberg lost the rear of his car and collided into Esteban Ocon who then clipped Franco Colapinto.

Lance Stroll and Alex Albon also made contact amid the drama.

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On lap 16, Hamilton, who was eighth, was handed a five-second time penalty for a false start.

Russell’s evening went from bad to worse when his rear right tyre got stuck during his pit stop which took seven seconds.

Drama erupted when Albon lost his mirror going down the main straight, causing debris to scatter over the track.

There was only a matter of time before someone drove over it and lo and behold Valtteri Bottas did, fortunately with no major issues.

It caused misery for Hamilton, with the debris causing a puncture for his Mercedes before the safety car was deployed.

Carlos Sainz’s car was also damaged, and the Ferrari was in the pits for a whopping nine-seconds.

Russell ranted at his team for putting hard tyres on, saying: “Why have we put hards on? Why have we put the s*** hards on? They’re s***”

On lap 40 at the restart, Verstappen held off Norris on Turn One to go on the outside after the McLaren got a great slingshot out of the final corner.

There was more contact and more chaos as Hulkenberg was beached in the gravel and out of the race while Sergio Perez was gone too.

Drama continued as the stewards came down HARD on Norris for not slowing sufficiently for yellow flags, slapping him with a whopping 10-second stop-and-go penalty.

Hamilton had his meltdown after he was caught speeding in the pit-lane.

Verstappen cruised towards victory while Norris snuck back into the points as he moved into tenth.