Hamilton endured "a really bad day" at the Spanish Grand Prix
Following a strong qualifying pace on Saturday, Ferrari's seven-time F1 champion Lewis Hamilton sounded a pessimistic note after the Spanish Grand Prix, claiming that he endured a "really bad day" at Barcelona.
Ferrari made slight improvements to the qualifying pace of its SF25 at Barcelona which enabled Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc to qualify fifth and seventh on the grid respectively.
The Italian outfit had expected to display an even better race pace given their form swing between qualifying and races, and they really had the upper hand over Mercedes while Leclerc matched race winner Oscar Piastri’s pace at certain times of the 66-lap Spanish Grand Prix.
The Monegasque looked on for fourth after a two-stop strategy, but the safety car restart opened new opportunities for Leclerc. Max Verstappen had a huge moment at the restart, and Leclerc was able to to pick off the reigning champion into Turn 1.
As for his team-mate Lewis Hamilton, things looked good at the start as he managed to pick off his his former team-mate George Russell. However, he struggled to keep his tyres alive and was asked by Ferrari to let Leclerc past early on in the race.
The seven-time F1 champion played a long game, but an undercut strategy from Mercedes saw Russell overtake Hamilton after the second round of pit stops. After the safety car restart, he was even passed on merit by Hulkenberg, his Ferrari just not working for him today.
Reflecting on his race at Barcelona, Hamilton conceded that he lacked pace throughout the race for which he does not have any explanations currently.
"Today was definitely not what I was hoping for. I felt good going into the race, after a pretty good qualifying and the car performing better. But the balance felt off throughout the race and we lacked pace from the start.
"We don’t have an explanation for it, so we’ll have to go away and look into the data and any underlying issues. Congratulations to Charles, he did a great job and fully deserved the podium."
Speaking to Sky Sports F1 after the race, Hamilton continued: 'Well what do you want me to say? I had a really bad day and I've got nothing to say.
'It was a difficult day, I've got nothing else to add to it. There's no point explaining it. It's not your fault, I've just not got anything to say.'
