Hamilton “Devastated” After Qualifying in Imola
Lewis Hamilton expressed his “devastation” after qualifying in 12th position for the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix, his first race in Italy as a Ferrari driver.
Hamilton will start just behind his teammate, Charles Leclerc, on Sunday’s grid, after both drivers struggled in qualifying at Imola.
The circuit in northern Italy awaits an exhausted crowd for the race, partly thanks to the excitement generated by Hamilton’s move to Ferrari during the winter. The seven-time world champion seemed disheartened after the team’s worst combined qualifying result of the season.
“Definitely devastated, I guess I feel broken,” Hamilton told the media. “I don’t know, I felt the car, the setup just wasn’t right.”
Lewis Hamilton
“The brakes were working [after the problems during practice], everything was more or less in place, but we simply can’t go any faster,” he added.
“If you look at how fast Max [Verstappen] is going in turns 2 and 3, you just can’t match it. And then we put that new soft [tire] on at the end and, for some reason, it didn’t feel alive. There was no extra grip.”
Leclerc commented that the result was painful for Ferrari and downplayed the possibility of an improvement on race day.
“The best performance we could give was in 11th and 12th place,” he said. “This hurts.”
Charles Leclerc
“I hope I can do some miracles tomorrow, but to be completely honest, for now there is nothing that gives me hope for tomorrow’s pace, simply because I think the potential of the car is not good enough at the moment.”
Hamilton also expects that progress on the track will be difficult on the narrow and fast Imola circuit.
“I mean, this isn’t a great circuit for racing. It’s great for a single lap, but overtaking, you get stuck in a DRS train, there’s not going to be much movement tomorrow,” said Hamilton. “But we’re all on softer tires, so we’ll see what we can do. We’ll try to get past them if we can. I feel like the race pace could be good. I’m going to race my season this year.”
When asked if he had taken anything positive from the support he has experienced from Italian fans since his arrival in Imola, Hamilton added: “Yes, I mean, it’s positive, incredible. There’s something magical. I just need more support. Seeing what Ferrari means to people. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
