Lewis Hamilton suffers sudden Ferrari realisation as pole slips through fingers

Lewis Hamilton has described his sudden realisation that his Ferrari was set to struggle during the crunch point at the end of Spanish Grand Prix qualifying.

After the first runs in Q3, Hamilton held provisional pole and was on course for his first P1 start in a grand prix since the 2023 Hungarian GP, 73 races ago. 

However, on the second run, Hamilton only improved his time by less than a tenth of a second, opening the door for rivals to leapfrog him. 

Lando Norris, Kimi Antonelli, and Max Verstappen all broke the 1:32 barrier, by dipping into the 1:31s to leave Hamilton fourth on the grid - the second time this season he has lost out on pole in Q3 after leading the first runs, following Hungary, to Norris.

Reflecting, Hamilton was pleased with the performance his SF-26 had shown, but explained how he knew he was in trouble at the end of the out-lap of his second run.

"Qualifying was generally pretty straightforward, with no real issues," Hamilton told media, including RacingNews365. 

"I felt pretty awesome on Q3 run one, and then just didn't have any more grip or power.

"It was good execution from the team. I think they did a really good job, but unfortunately, I just didn't have the pace [at the end]."

Later, speaking to Sky Sports F1, Hamilton expanded on some of the issues he faced during his second lap. 

"The second lap was just as good as the other one, because it was the same time pretty much," he said.

"I think I was half a tenth quicker or something like that, but for some reason, we went into that last lap, and as I came around the last corner, I had understeer.

"I was like: 'Hey, maybe these front tyres are not switched on", and it just turns out that I had more rear and more understeer through the lap."

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Hamilton looks ahead to Spanish GP

As for the race itself, Hamilton was upbeat about the circuit, but wary of the lack of overtaking opportunities.

"I have no idea. I mean, I haven't seen the other races, but was told it was very hard to overtake," he said.

"It is a pretty cool track to drive, some go-kart-esque elements with the kerbs, which is cool, really cool banking, so I think they did a really great job."