Lewis Hamilton says he is "much happier" with his Ferrari after qualifying fifth for the Dutch Grand Prix compared to Friday's sprint shootout, and is "excited" for the race.
"I was much, much happier with the car," he told the media on Saturday evening, having endured a difficult Friday, when he qualified seventh, 0.624s off sprint pole.
Right after the sprint, which he also finished in seventh, Hamilton explained Ferrari would use the window before qualifying to change the car's set-up in an attempt to give him the same feeling he had in the single practice session.
That ultimately paid off, the driver confirmed, yet still left him frustrated about the wrong direction he and the team had taken after FP1. "When it comes to building confidence," he explained, "it's like you're putting brick by brick, you're putting it down, building a wall. Knocked down that confidence that I had in FP1, didn't have it through sprint qualifying, and then I just basically started again building."
That improvement didn't necessarily translate into Ferrari becoming more competitive overall. Charles Leclerc, who on Friday evening was third, just 0.055s off George Russell sprint pole and only 0.014s behind Lando Norris' McLaren, fell to sixth in grand prix qualifying - but for Hamilton himself, fifth place meant he potentially turned his own weekend around.
"The car was much better," he confirmed. "I'm much happier with it. I'm excited for tomorrow."
Leclerc, for his part, reckons Ferrari's form on Friday wasn't entirely representative, as he believes it was partly down to his rivals not maximising their performance that he was able to get so close to the front. The Monegasque also explained that changes to Ferrari's power unit modes during qualifying affected his feeling with the car, although he didn't believe pole position was within reach anyway.
"I don't think it's down to changes in the car," he said when asked about the bigger gap to the opposition compared to Friday. "Speaking a little bit with Lando and George, I felt like yesterday they didn't do everything perfect or the car didn't feel quite right, whereas for me the car felt quite good yesterday so I knew maybe we had a bit less margin compared to them."
"And then today we did some, I think, mistakes in changing modes, power modes from Q2 to Q3 that put me off a little bit with the feeling I had with the car and we'll have to look into it."
Hamilton's progress with Ferrari is clear, while Leclerc remains consistent at the front. The Dutch GP main race will be the real test for both Scuderia drivers to fight at the front.
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