Lewis Hamilton has expressed frustration with Ferrari's qualifying strategy at the Formula 1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix on Friday (2026), saying it left him without a crucial slipstream.
Hamilton's performance in Baku qualifying faded after an impressive Q1 where he outpaced teammate Charles Leclerc by a tenth. He then lost 0.257s in Q2 and 0.495s in Q3, ending up sixth while Leclerc surged to second.
“We've been struggling all weekend to get the tyres working,” Hamilton said. “Q1 was pretty OK. I felt like the car wasn't too bad in Q1. In Q2 we started struggling even more with the rear tyres. And I was behind at least some cars in those two sessions. After Q2 they decided to change the run plan and just do one run, which hadn't foreseen the fact that I would come out with no one ahead of me, and just towing Charles the whole time. It was 25 seconds behind George [Russell], sog”
Hamilton added: “Charles did a really good job. Right at the end I gave him a really good tow all the way to the start line.”
Despite his struggles, Hamilton believed a tow in FP3 was worth “six tenths” – which would have vaulted him to the front row in Q3. “It's literally just not having people up ahead,” he insisted. “As I said, I was weaving to try and save my life, and I still couldn't get these stupid tyres working. It's such a pain in the arse. We've got to bring back some good tyres.”
But even with Leclerc's encouraging result, Hamilton doesn't believe Ferrari has the second-fastest car. “Maybe the third-fastest car,” he said. “I think Max [Verstappen] has been quicker all weekend, and I don't know what happened to him in the session. It will be hard to overtake any of the cars.”
When his qualifying was described as a ‘perfect storm’ where ‘nothing went right’, a downbeat Hamilton responded: “It happens all the time, so I'm used to it.”
This was the first time in 2026 that the Ferrari racer qualified more than a second down on pole position, with a whopping 1.332s deficit to Mercedes' George Russell – who was eight tenths faster than anyone.
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