Lewis Hamilton has conceded his Mercedes career may peter out on a whimper as he is not expecting Abu Dhabi to be any better than his Qatar weekend.

Although Hamilton scored three points in the Qatar Sprint, bringing his Mercedes home in sixth place, Sunday’s Grand Prix did not go to plan as he was on the back foot even before the lights went out.

Lewis Hamilton does not anticipate a ‘better weekend’ in Abu Dhabi

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

Hamilton lined up sixth on the grid but a false start as he moved slightly forward before the lights went out meant he was facing a penalty even before the start of the race.

Losing three places off the line, that five-second penalty duly came and he served that during his pit stop.

But on an evening when what could go wrong, did go wrong, he suffered a puncture when he hit the debris that was once Valtteri Bottas’ rear view mirror. He was then caught for speeding in the pit lane when he came in to change his tyres.

Such was his mood at the time he wanted to “park” the car, reiterating he wanted to “retire”, but Mercedes told him to stay in the race and serve the drive-through penalty otherwise it would be carried over to Abu Dhabi.

Hamilton finished down in 12th place, over 20 seconds behind the final points-paying position.

He fears Abu Dhabi may not be any better.

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“I don’t think we’re going to end up in a high,” he told the media, including PlanetF1.com. “It will end and I think what’s important is how we turn up, we give it our best shot.

“I don’t anticipate a particularly much better weekend than we’ve had in the past weekends, but naturally I’ll try. Go in with low hopes and maybe come out with a better result.

“It doesn’t really make a big difference either way, these last races for me don’t have an impact on everything.

“It’s been a rollercoaster ride of emotions and I’m just grateful I’m still standing and I’m still OK. I’ve had great races in my life and I’ve had bad races in my life. Not too many bad ones.”

The up side is that having stayed in the race and served his penalty, Hamilton will not have to carry that over to Abu Dhabi. He admits both the false start and the speed were entirely on him.

“Could have been worse, but I finished and it’s over. That was me at the start, and then the puncture was really unfortunate, and Safety Car that was me as well.”

Heading into the finale, Hamilton sits in seventh in the World Drivers’ Championship with a total of 211 points.

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