Hamilton tells Ecclestone to judge him at the end of the season

Lewis Hamilton issued a one-line response to Bernie Ecclestone’s claim that he has lost his edge by telling Formula One’s former supremo to judge him at the end of the season.

Hamilton will line up behind Sebastian Vettel for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix after the Ferrari driver edged out his rival to secure a hat-trick of consecutive pole positions.

Hamilton’s return to the front row, his first appearance there since he took pole at the season-opening rubber in Australia, went some way to halting a below-par run for the defending champion which had seen him out-qualified by Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas at the last two races.

Hamilton’s misfiring start to the new campaign led F1’s chairman emeritus Ecclestone, here in Baku this weekend, to proclaim that the four-time world champion is disillusioned.

“He doesn’t seem to be the Lewis that he was before,” said Ecclestone on Friday.

“When you talk to him, and see the way he acts, he’s not the racer he was. Maybe he is just getting a little bit tired of travelling and is fed up.”

The post was accompanied with the message: “In all honesty, I shy away from cameras and have never been super comfortable in front of a camera, but I woke up this morning wanting to grow and change that and try to communicate better with you.

“So much gets lost in translation and I refuse to believe that it’s just how it is.”

After finishing 0.179 seconds shy of Vettel, Hamilton, with the peak of his Mercedes cap as low on his forehead as his mood, then passed up the option to respond at length to Ecclestone.

In nine words, he simply said: “We will see [if Ecclestone is right] at the end of the year.” It was down to Vettel, sitting to Hamilton’s left, to surmise how his rival may be feeling.

“There are a lot of people that have an opinion every time I am in the car,” Vettel said. “Sometimes they are right and sometimes they are not.

“The most important thing is you know who you are, and then you can listen less and less to what is going on, not be distracted, and simply enjoy your racing.”

Vettel’s final words appeared to bring a nod of approval from his championship rival.

Hamilton is only nine points behind Vettel with 18 races still to go, but the Ferrari, in the German’s hands at least, is proving to be this year’s dominant force.

Bottas will start behind Hamilton with the Red Bull duo of Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen fourth and fifth.

McLaren’s Fernando Alonso and Stoffel Vandoorne qualified a lowly 13th and 16th on yet another dismal weekend for the British team.