Lewis Hamilton was “devastated” after suffering another blow in his first season at Ferrari during a captivating qualifying session at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix on Saturday.
Hamilton, who admitted this week he wasn’t expecting his first season at Ferrari to be so “tough”, and teammate Charles Leclerc missed the opportunity to fight for pole in Imola, with both drivers knocked out of contention in Q2.
The pair will start alongside each other on the grid for Sunday’s race, with Leclerc a place ahead in 11th and Hamilton in 12th.
Oscar Piastri claimed pole position for McLaren, with Max Verstappen in second and Hamilton’s former teammate George Russell in third for Mercedes. Piastri’s teammate Lando Norris will start a disappointing fourth on the grid.
“Tough one, tough one,” said Hamilton, who has only managed one top-five finish in the first six races of the season and currently lies 90 points behind championship leader Piastri.
“Ultimately, I feel super gutted, devastated, that we weren’t able to get through. I really feel we’ve made many positive steps over the weekend.
“When we put the new tyres on, we didn’t have any more grip, couldn’t go any faster, everyone else managed to switch on the tyres. To be in front of the Italian fans, first time for Ferrari, to not manage to get to Q3 is bittersweet.”
Asked about his prospects for Sunday’s race, Hamilton replied: “It’s all big ifs, it’s a very difficult track to overtake at.
“We’ll have to battle hard to figure a way to progress forward – just getting into the top 10 and further into the top 10 will be tough.”
Hometown hero Kimi Antonelli, the Mercedes 18-year-old rookie, also endured an afternoon to forget as he could only manage P13.
Qualifying on Saturday, the first in Europe this season, started in dramatic circumstances as Yuki Tsunoda – in just his fourth race for Red Bull – suffered a huge crash.
Losing control of his car at the Villeneuve chicane, Tsunoda spun violently into the gravel before his car flipped heavily into the catch fencing surrounding the racetrack.
Fortunately, Tsunoda walked away from the incident but was taken to the on-site medical centre.
A matter of minutes later, Alpine debutant Franco Colapinto spun at Tamburello corner, hitting the tyre barrier. The 21-year-old, brought in to replace Jack Doohan by de facto Alpine boss Flavio Briatore, quickly apologised but stated he was OK.
The drama did not stop there, with the shock double Ferrari elimination following in Q2 to the dismay of the thousands of red-clad fans in the grandstands.
Afterwards, Leclerc was dejected and insisted he is unable to perform “miracles” as the Scuderia target a strong race on Sunday.
“You can always do a bit more with a lap, but we are just nowhere at the moment,” Leclerc said. “There’s not enough performance in the car, I keep repeating myself. We need to be better.
“Very hard [for the race], I can fight as much as I want but I cannot do miracles. This is what there is in the car, I’m trying to extract the maximum out of it.”
The fight for pole position was intriguing, with Verstappen initially in the driving seat before Piastri snatched top spot with his final run by 0.034 seconds.
Russell, opting for a medium tyre, came home third with Norris’s title hopes receiving a further blow. He will start in P4.
The race on Sunday is at 2pm (BST).
