Lewis Hamilton was left “disappointed” by Ferrari’s call to deny him fresh Medium tyres that left him out of Q3 for Formula 1‘s Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Hamilton was brought back down to earth after positive showings in free practice, compounding the seven-time World Champion’s steep learning curve with the Scuderia.
Not only has the Briton had to assimilate himself with the culture at Ferrari, but he has also struggled immensely to adapt to the inherent characteristics of the SF-25.
That said, the past few race weekends had seen a steady uptick in Hamilton’s pace, and going into Baku, the 40-year-old would have expected to build on that rise in form.
However, Hamilton was knocked out of Q2 for the fifth time this season during qualifying on Saturday.
“Honestly, I’m so disappointed. Yesterday the car was feeling good but today there was a direction that we ended up going which on paper looked like it was the best place to be,” he told Sky Sports F1.
“Our pace had been good, we were progressing and I was feeling really on it, I didn’t make any mistakes, didn’t go down an exit road, it was just that we didn’t have the right tyre underneath us.”
Hamilton expanded on the tyre issue that potentially hindered his Q2 run and revealed that while he wanted to go on a fresh set of Medium tyres, the team overruled his request.
“Everyone ahead of me basically had the Medium tyre on and I lost a Medium tyre in P2 due to run-time schedules and that put me on the back foot,” he added.
“Yeah [I did], but the choice wasn’t taken to use it.
“I wanted to do but they said that the warm-up was too long or something like that so we ran out of time and out of fuel, so not great.”
Hamilton Q2 exit compounds Ferrari misery
All throughout Friday practice, Hamilton had showcased pace in the SF-25. He even topped FP2, leading his team-mate Charles Leclerc.
Heading into the final practice session, the Briton was comfortably into the top 5 and hence, went into qualifying gunning for pole.
That said, how the events unfolded, left the 40-year-old perplexed.
“We will take it internal and as I said there has been lots of positives this weekend and I’ve really felt on it,” continued Hamilton.
“I honestly thought I was going to be shooting for pole today and so it’s come as a bit of a shock. I will take it on the chin and keep trying.”
It got worse for the team, with Leclerc crashing out early in Q3 to start 10th, just two places ahead, to leave the scarlet cars with an uphill struggle in the race.
READ MORE — Charles Leclerc provides Ferrari reality check ahead of F1 Azerbaijan GP qualifying
Discussion about this post