Hamilton was left “devastated” after Ferrari’s worst ever qualifying at Imola
On the back of Ferrari’s worst ever qualifying result at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, seven-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton was left “super gutted and devastated”.
Although Ferrari looked fairly competitive in the third and final practice at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, the Scuderia recorded its worst ever qualifying result at Imola.
Both drivers made it through the first part using just one set of Soft tyres, although Leclerc and Hamilton had fitted a second set of the same compound, planning to go quicker.
However, there was no need for a further attempt, as the session was red-flagged following Franco Colapinto’s crash. The Ferraris kept those tyres for the start of Q2 with the Monegasque posting a 1m15.604s and Lewis a 1m15.765s.
They then pitted for new softs but neither of them was able to improve and towards the end, which meant that they were unable to get to Q3, with the 11th and 12th fastest times.
Hamilton understandably cut a downbeat figure following Qualifying and conceded that it had been especially painful after positive sentiments across the practice sessions.
“It’s been a] tough one. Ultimately I feel super gutted, devastated, that we weren’t able to get through. I really feel like we have made so many positive steps through the weekend.
“A tough one today. The car felt good overall, but we just didn’t have the grip we needed on the final lap in Q2 and that cost us. This circuit makes overtaking a real challenge, so we know tomorrow won’t be easy, but we’ll dig deep as a team and explore every option tonight.
“To the tifosi, we know this isn’t the performance we wanted at our home race, but we’ll give it everything we’ve got and see what we can do.”
As for the technical performance of his car, the seven-time F1 champion stated that while the brakes and the balance were much better than on Friday, Ferrari were unable to extract the peak performance of the fresh soft tyres.
“The car was generally feeling better, the brakes were better today, the balance was really nice, and in Q2 run one felt decent, and when we put the new tyres on for some reason it just didn’t have more grip and couldn’t go any faster.
“When you see everyone else, they managed to switch the tyres on clearly. We need to look into that, the reason it’s devastating is just to see everyone who’s worked so hard in the garage, to be in Italy for the first Italian race for me in Ferrari and not to make it to Q3, it's definitely bittersweet.”
