Lewis Hamilton has suggested that Ferrari’s qualifying pace for the Formula 1 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix will be a “lottery” due to the sensitivity of the car.
The Briton endured a tale of two sessions at the Imola circuit, finishing fifth in FP1, less than a tenth off Oscar Piastri’s fastest time.
However, FP2 saw him struggle, ending the day in 11th place, six tenths adrift of the quickest time, again set by Piastri’s McLaren.
Ferrari has brought minor upgrades to the SF-25 for this weekend, but Hamilton told Sky F1 that just a small adjustment to the car between the two sessions was what made the difference.
“FP1 was good, I was really really happy with the car,” he said. “Felt like we’d made a step forward and it’s feeling really positive.
“I literally changed the two tiniest things that shouldn’t have had barely any effect at all.
“The smallest change we’ve probably done this year, and we had some brake issues that then made a massive difference, so that was a fight with that.
“That’s been a quite a big issue all year, actually. I’ve never experienced that before, so that’s a new thing for me this year.”
When asked what his feelings were for the car’s performance in qualifying, Hamilton joked that it would be a case of gambling and hoping for the best.
“I mean, it’s a lottery, we’ll roll the dice. We’ll put one [change] on and it works, and we’ll put another on one and it doesn’t and we’ll see!
“So I hope tomorrow we figure something out, we’re working on it for sure.”
Leclerc admits grid position vital at Imola
Charles Leclerc returned to duty on Friday after missing Thursday’s media day with ill health, and finished the day 12th and sixth, but still teetering around half-a-second off the pace.
Leclerc told Sky F1 that Ferrari’s one-lap pace is still left wanting, which renders the improved race pace irrelevant due to Imola’s tight layout.
“The whole FP1 was very tricky,” he said. “We’ve had some different problems. FP2, we put everything together a bit more and it was feeling better on my side, but still we are lacking performance we know a weak point is the qualifying pace and we still need to work on that.”
Asked if he was optimistic about making a push for the front row, Leclerc said that the car was not realistically going to be challenging the front runners.
“To be better than today? Yes,” he answered. “To go and take pole? Honestly, I don’t think we’ve got that in the car for now, but the race pace was strong so that’s positive but it’s also a track where overtaking is very difficult, so we’ve got to focus on our qualifying pace, that’s where we are putting all our thought into, and I hope it will pay the price for tomorrow.”
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