Lewis Hamilton described Ferrari`s unexpected early elimination during qualifying for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix as `devastating`. This disappointing performance marked a new low for the Italian team at their home race.
For the first time in the 32-year history of hosting a Grand Prix at the historic Imola circuit, Ferrari failed to place a car in the top 10 grid positions. Charles Leclerc finished 11th and Hamilton 12th in the second qualifying session (Q2). This was also the first time Ferrari missed Q3 since the Canadian GP nearly a year ago.
Hamilton, who qualified just one-tenth of a second behind Leclerc, is racing in front of Ferrari`s passionate `Tifosi` fans for the first time this weekend.
A clearly disappointed seven-time world champion stated: “Tough one. Ultimately, I feel super gutted, devastated that we weren`t able to get through.”
“I really feel like we had made so many positive steps through the weekend. The car was generally feeling better, brakes were better today, the balance was really nice,” Hamilton continued. “In Q2, run one felt decent, and then when we put the new tyres on, for some reason I just didn`t have any more grip and couldn`t go any faster.”
“You see everyone else, they managed to switch the tyres on clearly. We definitely need to look into that.”
Elaborating on his feelings, Hamilton added: “The reason it`s devastating is just to see everyone who`s worked so hard in the garage, to be in Italy for the first Italian race for me with Ferrari and to not make it to Q3, it`s definitely bittersweet.”
The Ferrari pair had been in the top 10 after their initial Q2 runs (fifth and sixth) but became vulnerable after failing to improve their lap times on their final attempts with new soft tyres.
Indeed, that`s exactly what happened. Behind them on track, several drivers – Williams` Carlos Sainz, Racing Bulls` Isack Hadjar, Alpine`s Pierre Gasly (on soft tyres), and even the Aston Martin duo of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll (on theoretically slower mediums) – all posted faster times, pushing the Ferraris out of the top 10.
Asked if there was more performance they could have extracted from the car, Leclerc replied: “I don`t think so.”
“You can always do a little bit more with a lap and improve quite a few things, but we are just nowhere at the moment,” he admitted. “There`s not enough performance in the car, and I keep repeating myself.”
“There`s just not the potential that we would hope inside this car at the moment, and we need to be better,” Leclerc stated.
Ferrari Drivers Face `Tough` Race Outlook
Currently fourth in the Constructors` Championship, a significant 152 points behind leaders McLaren (who start first and fourth), Ferrari now face the challenge of salvaging a respectable result from their poor grid positions in Sunday`s 63-lap Grand Prix.
However, neither Hamilton nor Leclerc are optimistic about an easy recovery.
“It`s all big ifs. It`s a very difficult track to overtake,” commented Hamilton on the narrow 3.05-mile Imola layout. “I think tomorrow it will be hard to progress. We`ll have to battle hard to be able to figure a way to progress forwards.”
“Just getting into the top 10 and getting further up the top 10 is going to be tough. There`s a lot of quick cars ahead of us.”
Leclerc, who showed strong race pace during Friday practice, agreed. “Very, very hard,” he said.
“But I can fight as much as I want, but at the moment I cannot do miracles. This is what there is in the car. I`m trying to extract the maximum out of it. That`s it,” he concluded.
Gilbert Pendleton