It’s not often Lewis Hamilton is tempted to give up in Formula 1. He nearly did just that Sunday, discussing with his Mercedes team over the radio whether it would be best to retire the car as his Qatar Grand Prix went from bad to worse.

Lewis Hamilton apologized to Mercedes following the Qatar Grand Prix, taking responsibility for on-track incidents.

In Qatar this weekend, he was a sizable margin behind Russell, who was awarded pole after qualifying second and taking advantage of an unprecedented one-place grid penalty for original pole-sitter Verstappen after he was judged to be driving unnecessarily slowly on a cool-down lap.