Lewis Hamilton described Ferrari`s unexpected early elimination from qualifying at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix as `devastating`, as the Italian team`s challenging season reached a new low point on home ground.
For the first time in the history of the Imola circuit hosting a Grand Prix, Ferrari failed to place a car in the top 10 grid positions. Both Charles Leclerc and Hamilton were knocked out in the second qualifying session (Q2), finishing 11th and 12th respectively.
This marked Ferrari`s first failure to reach Q3 in almost a year, since the Canadian GP last June.
Hamilton, who qualified just a tenth of a second behind Leclerc, is competing in front of Ferrari`s passionate Tifosi fans for the first time this weekend.
Speaking to Sky Sports F1, a clearly disappointed seven-time world champion said: “It`s a tough one. Ultimately, I feel super gutted, devastated that we weren`t able to get through.”
He added: “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.”
“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 frustration, Hamilton explained: “The reason it`s devastating is just to see everyone who`s worked so hard in the garage, to be in Italy for my first Italian race with Ferrari and to not make it to Q3, it`s definitely bittersweet.”
The Ferrari drivers were inside the top 10 heading into the final Q2 runs but failed to improve their times on fresh soft tyres, leaving them vulnerable. As other competitors behind them successfully set faster laps – including cars on theoretically slower tyre compounds – the Ferraris were pushed out of the crucial top 10 spots required for Q3.
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 stated. “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.”
Ferrari drivers now braced for `tough` and `very hard` race
Currently fourth in the Constructors` Championship, far behind leaders McLaren, Ferrari now face the challenge of salvaging a respectable result from their low grid positions in Sunday`s 63-lap race.
However, neither Hamilton nor Leclerc anticipate an easy task.
“It`s a very difficult track to overtake,” said Hamilton of the narrow 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 had shown stronger race pace in Friday practice, agreed. “Very, very hard,” he commented.
“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.”
