Lewis Hamilton admits “not making it into Q3 in my first race in Italy with Ferrari is devastating”. Lewis Hamilton describes missing Q3 at Imola as “devastating” in his first Italian Grand Prix with Ferrari.

The first qualifying session in Italy as a Ferrari driver was very disappointing for the seven-time world champion, who, like his teammate Charles Leclerc, was eliminated at the end of Q2. Neither of them managed to improve after fitting new tires, and Lewis wants to understand the reason behind this anomaly.

Lewis Hamilton had certainly hoped for a different outcome in his first Italian Grand Prix as a Ferrari driver. Expectations for the Imola weekend weren’t particularly high, and he had already tried to downplay things on Thursday, but the seven-time world champion probably didn’t imagine that today he would be commenting on a double Q2 elimination and a 12th place on the grid.

The disappointment came somewhat unexpectedly for the Briton, who had struggled a lot on Friday, but today felt he had made progress with the balance of his SF-25. However, everything fell apart in Q2, when the Ferraris were the only cars not to improve during their second run on new tires. According to Lewis, it will be crucial to understand the reason behind this.

“It was really tough. I’m devastated not to have made it into Q3, because I think we made some steps forward during the weekend. Overall, I felt the car was better, and so were the brakes. The balance was really good,” Lewis Hamilton said.

“The first Q2 run was decent. Then, when we put on the new tires, for some reason we had no grip and couldn’t be quick. Everyone else managed to improve, so we absolutely need to investigate that. And what makes it devastating is seeing all the guys who worked in the garage. Being in Italy for my first race here with Ferrari and not making it into Q3 is definitely bittersweet,” he added.

At this point, his expectations for tomorrow’s race are very low, because this is a track where DRS trains make overtaking extremely difficult: “It’s a track where it’s really hard to overtake, so I think tomorrow will be tough. We’ll have to fight very hard to find a way through. But even just getting into the top 10 will be difficult,” he concluded.