Lewis Hamilton qualified only seventh in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix. The British driver is struggling and seems unable to find a way to fully exploit the SF-25.
If Sparta (Charles Leclerc) is crying, Athens (Lewis Hamilton) is certainly not laughing. The seven-time world champion could only manage the seventh-fastest time in the Saudi Arabian Grand Prix qualifying, on one of the tracks—Jeddah—that Ferrari had marked as a key one on the calendar, considering it a potential venue for strong results.
But for now, at least, no. Charles Leclerc is in fourth place, over three-tenths behind the pole time (with a new track record) set by Verstappen, while Lewis Hamilton is nearly nine-tenths off, which in today’s Formula 1 is a huge gap.
The Briton himself acknowledged the difficulties faced up until now. After qualifying, he confirmed his discomfort with the SF-25 in qualifying but also recognized, more generally, the widespread difficulties that the results had already highlighted.
“The qualifying session was as difficult as always. We’re lost this whole weekend. I couldn’t even improve much session by session,” said the former Mercedes driver in a quiet voice.
Confirming his tough moment, Lewis Hamilton stated that he was happy to have at least made it to Q3. After the three practice sessions held yesterday and today, this result seemed anything but certain: “But I’m happy to have made it to Q3 given the level. The last lap wasn’t spectacular, but we are making improvements. I should have done a better lap, but I’m still grateful to be among the top drivers. I’d been nowhere all weekend – 13th I think in almost every session – so, honestly, I feel grateful to have got to Q3 and P7. I still got work to do to try and gel with this car. I might be so stuck [in my driving style] that it’s never gonna change. But I’m, behind the scenes, working, I couldn’t work any harder.”
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