Laurence Edmondson
Lewis Hamilton was left “devastated” after qualifying 12th on the grid for his first grand prix in Italy as a Ferrari driver.
Hamilton will line up one position behind teammate Charles Leclerc on Sunday’s grid for the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix, after both drivers struggled for performance in qualifying at Imola.
The circuit in Northern Italy is expecting a sellout crowd for the race — in part thanks to the excitement generated by Hamilton’s move to Ferrari over the winter — and the seven-time world champion appeared deflated after the team’s worst combined qualifying result of the season.
“Definitely devastated, I feel just gutted, I guess,” Hamilton told media. “I don’t know, it felt like the car, the setup wasn’t just right.
“The brakes were working [after problems during practice], everything was kind of in place, but we just can’t go quicker.
“If you look at how quick Max [Verstappen] is going through Turn 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 just didn’t feel alive.
“There was no extra grip.”
Leclerc said the result was painful for Ferrari and played down the possibility of a turnaround on race day.
“The best performance that we could give was in 11th and 12th place,” he said. “This hurts.
“I hope I can do some miracles tomorrow, but to be completely honest for now there’s nothing that gives me hope for tomorrow’s pace — just because I think the potential of the car is not good enough at the moment.”
Hamilton also expects progress through the field to be tough around the narrow and fast Imola circuit.
“I mean, this is not a great race circuit to race on. It’s great to drive a single lap, but overtaking, you get stuck in a DRS train, there’s not going to be a lot of movement tomorrow,” Hamilton said. “But we are all in softer tires, so we’ll see what we can do.
“We’ll try and pick them off if we can. I feel like race pace could be good. I’ll race pace my season this year.”
Asked if he had taken some positives from the support he has experienced from Italian fans since arriving in Imola, Hamilton added: “Yeah, I mean, it’s positive, amazing.
“There’s something magical. I just need more support.
“To see how much of the Ferrari, what Ferrari means to people. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
