Heading into the final Q1 runs, both Hamilton and his Mercedes team-mate George Russell were in danger of dropping out, and the former could only climb up to P11 after his last effort.

A heavy lock-up at Turn 14 meant that he dropped over six-tenths of a second to Russell in the final sector alone and when the rest of the field filtered through, Hamilton dropped from P11 to P18 with only Yuki Tsunoda and Logan Sargeant behind him.

When the chequered flag waved and Hamilton's first Q1 exit since the 2022 Saudi Arabian Grand Prix was confirmed, the mood in the Mercedes garage was clearly a sombre one, and team principal Wolff looked on in despair.

Nico Rosberg, who joined David Croft on Sky Sports F1 co-commentator duties for the weekend, described the exit as a "disaster" before adding: "That is seriously painful. In 18th position is Lewis.

"You know the wind is coming from the back there at that part of the track. He had a great lap until then. It was really unnecessary to push the limit and as a seven-time world champion that is a mistake which should be unavoidable.

"It's three metres too late and he had the brake balance too far forward. He lost at least four tenths which easily would have put him in Q2. That's a disaster."

Rosberg also pointed out that Mercedes' concerning race pace will exacerbate the frustration of Hamilton's Q1 exit. "That is a painful moment for him because the weekend is gone," he added. "With that car, you cannot get that far up anymore in the race. So it's painful."

This is a fact of which Mercedes are well aware. Despite Hamilton finishing Saturday's sprint race in P2, Wolff was left agitated by his team's lack of pace.

The seven-time world champion finished over 13 seconds behind Max Verstappen after losing the lead to the Dutchman halfway through the sprint race. Those numbers will make for worrying reading ahead of the full race distance on Sunday.