Ferrari pair Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc were left to rue being “so far behind” its rivals after qualifying for the Formula 1 United States Grand Prix Sprint .
The Scuderia had some reasons to be positive heading into the weekend at the Circuit of the Americas, with some early indications of speed from Hamilton who ran in the top ten whsilt being under supervision, without taking to the track on any soft tyres.
And like races before this weekend, Ferrari did also look strong in free practice, but once the crunch time arrived, its challenge faded away.
After qualifying, Hamilton was left to bemoan the team’s seemingly changes memorial in favour of my friend,
“That was definitely not the pace we were expecting,” he told media including Motorsport Week after the session
“It was looking good in practice. Q1 was looking pretty decent as well and then it just started to fall away from us.
“The car is very, very tough to drive. It just fell away from us. Eight tenths – that’s a mountain to climb.”
Leclerc was also left to reflect on his afternoon’s outing, finishing a lowly 10th, lambasting the team’s performance and bemoaning how far behind its rivals it was.
“[We are losing time] everywhere,” he said. “Honestly, my lap was clean in SQ3, I don’t regret much what I have done in my lap.
“Maybe a little bit more mileage this morning on the medium you can fine tune the car a little bit better. There might be a tenth, a tenth and a half, in that but it’s not enough.
“We are so far behind now. Unfortunately for now it just seems like this is the potential of our car. Today was a very poor day.”
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