While Charles Leclerc was left joyful after securing pole position for the Hungarian Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton called himself “useless” in the broadcast media pen, shouldering the blame for his Q2 exit.
“The team has no problem,” the seven-time Formula One world champion told Sky Sports. “You’ve seen the car’s on pole. So they probably need to change driver.”
It’s yet another disappointing qualifying session for Hamilton, coming on the heels of being knocked out in Q1 last time out in Belgium (for both the sprint race and GP) while Leclerc qualified third for last Sunday’s grand prix. His gap to Q3 was 0.015 seconds.
The Ferrari teammates were 0.247 seconds apart in Q2 at Hungaroring on Saturday, and Hamilton qualified 12th, saying over the radio, “Every time, every time.”
Qualifying 12th may have come as a bit of a surprise to some, based on how Hamilton performed in practice. He was fifth fastest on the timesheets in FP1, sixth in FP2 and fourth in FP3. That is just practice, where teams are testing different aspects of the car, but the pace did look okay.
But when asked by the written media whether he felt at all this weekend that he could have been in contention for a better qualifying result, Hamilton’s answer was brutally simple: “Not once this weekend.”
He told F1 TV that “nothing changed” with the car, and even when the written media asked whether it was the brakes, which has been an issue with him before, Hamilton said: “Nothing to do with the car.”
It likely boiled down to having a bad lap at the wrong time, but the self-critical tone and brief comments in his post-qualifying media appearances echoed similar notes as his final years with Mercedes, where he struggled in qualifying.
Hamilton’s start at Ferrari hasn’t been the fairytale that most people anticipated, as McLaren is far ahead the rest of the grid. But the Briton has started getting close to Leclerc since Miami, the qualifying gap falling from around three-tenths of a second to a tenth on average. That being said, Leclerc holds the qualifying edge, with an overall 12-5 head-to-head.
Aside from bringing home the sprint win at China, Hamilton also hasn’t been able to have a race breakthrough yet after 13 grands prix, his highest GP finish being fourth and lowest being 10th in Australia and the disqualification in China (after his car and Leclerc’s car both failed a post-race technical check).
Meanwhile, Leclerc has finished on the podium five times, the most recent being a third-place finish in the Belgian Grand Prix last weekend.
Hamilton currently sits sixth in the drivers’ standings, 30 points behind Leclerc and 157 off championship leader Oscar Piastri. Considering that overtaking is difficult at Hungaroring, it’s likely that the gap between the Ferrari teammates will grow, with Leclerc in a prime position to add another podium finish to his tally as he starts ahead of the McLaren duo.
And it all comes at a track where Hamilton holds the record for the most wins (8) and most pole positions (9).
Additional reporting by Luke Smith.
(Photo: Joe Portlock/Getty Images)
