F1 fans tell Lewis Hamilton to retire after dreadful Las Vegas Grand Prix qualifying performance

Yet while Hamilton went into qualifying hopeful of producing a strong display, the Stevenage-born racer instead toiled again - failing to qualify for P3.

Speaking after the race, the 38-year-old was honest and admitted he'd had issues with Mercedes' tyres.

"Yeah it's not that great," he told Sky Sports.

"Yesterday it was feeling a little bit better and we were looking relatively competitive.

"We made some changes overnight, P3 was pretty poor, it kind of put me on the back foot and I was just trying to recover in qualifying which is never the place to do so.

"But yeah, I was struggling with grip, the car just wasn't working for me.

"And it's definitely difficult when you can't even get through Q2, but it is what it is."

Hamilton was also downbeat when quizzed on his chances of winning the main event on Sunday.

"My guess is as good as yours," he added.

"One with the car and two with the tyre graining, we had massive graining like everybody, we had more graining in P3."

Yet a section of F1 fans are calling for Hamilton to retire from the sport, with the Briton a far cry from the driver that previously dominated.

One X user said: "Lewis Hamilton you got to retire bro ur too old."

A second stated: "Lewis Hamilton must just retire so I can quit watching F1. This Copium will be the death of me."

A third added: "Please Retire @LewisHamilton."

A fourth opined: "Make Hamilton retire I beg and face his alcohol business. He already has too much going on for him."

And a fifth said: "Hamilton sucks time to retire."

Hamilton has no plans to walk away from F1 just yet, however.

He signed a new Mercedes deal earlier in the year that ties him to the Silver Arrows until 2025.

And though Red Bull and Max Verstappen seem to be too hot to handle these days, Hamilton is still targeting a historic eighth title next term.

Meanwhile, Toto Wolff has backed Hamilton and explained why he couldn't go faster during qualifying in Vegas.

“Yeah, because he didn’t have any more grip," Wolff said when asked about Hamilton's radio message.

“We are really talking about four or five degrees of temperature difference between grip and no grip.

“You can see some teams - the McLarens - who play in the front and are out in Q1.

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"And the Ferraris put in stunning laps, both of them half a second ahead of everybody else.”

He added: "It [the team's performance' remains a mystery.

“Having the tyres in the right window and you can see the difference.

"We saw it in Free Practice 3. Very difficult to understand.”