Hamilton reveals he lost his deployment on his last qualifying lap

Lewis Hamilton will line up third on the grid for the 2026 British Grand Prix after another strong qualifying performance at Silverstone, although the Ferrari driver admitted that technical issues and an increasingly difficult car prevented him from repeating his Sprint pole heroics.

Hamilton thrilled the home crowd on Friday by securing Sprint pole before finishing second in Saturday's Sprint race. However, in Grand Prix qualifying he had to settle for third, behind teammate Charles Leclerc and Mercedes' Andrea Kimi Antonelli.

Despite missing out on another front-row start, the seven-time world champion remained satisfied with his performance, revealing that a deployment issue cost him valuable time on his final Q3 lap.

"No, not particularly. I think in run two, actually my run two was pretty decent, but I lost my deployment. There was a problem with the deployment, basically, and I lost like three tenths down the back straight."

Hamilton explained that the issue was eventually resolved, but it came too late to improve his final qualifying position: "But that got fixed towards the end."

Beyond the deployment problem, Hamilton felt the Ferrari was considerably more difficult to drive than it had been during Sprint Qualifying, with understeer becoming the biggest limitation.

"I just struggled more in this qualifying session with the car, a lot more understeer. But yeah, I'm still happy to be up here."

Asked why he could not match the blistering pace that earned him Sprint pole on Friday, Hamilton pointed to a combination of understeer, deployment issues and inconsistent braking performance.

"Yes, those two. Then braking, for example for Turn 3, Kimi was talking about it, but that was quite inconsistent for me today with the settings that we ended up choosing."

Even so, Hamilton was pleased to see both Ferrari drivers near the front of the grid. "But yes, happy to see both Charles and I up here."

Ferrari showed encouraging pace throughout the weekend, with Leclerc qualifying second and Hamilton third, giving the Scuderia two cars in the fight at the front.

Looking ahead to Sunday's 52-lap British Grand Prix, however, Hamilton was realistic about Ferrari's chances against Antonelli, who won the Sprint earlier in the day and claimed pole position for the main race. Hamilton acknowledged that Antonelli's qualifying pace had been even stronger than what he himself managed on Friday.

"I mean, we couldn't this morning, so I don't think that really changes. And he's just gone quicker than, way quicker than I went yesterday."

The Briton expects Ferrari to put up a fight but admitted that beating the Mercedes driver on outright pace will be a difficult task.

"Nothing's changed between this morning and nothing will change between today and tomorrow. We'll do our best to hold on to them, but ultimately, if he gets a clean run, he'll be gone."