Hamilton: Disappointed, I thought I was shooting for pole

Hamilton had shown encouraging pace on Friday in the Ferrari, but today his Q2 run plan unravelled in a session dominated by six Red Flags and shifting weather. He revealed he was left compromised after losing a set of medium tyres in practice, which limited his options at the crucial moment.

Speaking to Sky Sports F1, Hamilton admitted his frustration: “I’m obviously so disappointed. Yesterday the car was feeling good. Today, there was a direction that we ended up going, which on paper looked like it was the best place for us to be, and ultimately it…

"Our pace had been good. We’d been progressing, I was feeling really on it, didn’t make any mistakes, didn’t see me go down any exit roads. It was just that we didn’t have the right tyre on at the end," explained the 40-year-old Briton.

Asked whether Ferrari could have pitted him for fresh tyres as Charles Leclerc had done, Hamilton explained: “Yeah, but the choice wasn’t taken to take it. I wanted to but they said that the warm-up was too long or something like that, so then we run out of time and run out of fuel. Not great, but we’ll take it internal.”

The seven-time F1 world champion insisted his performance was not the problem, but the strategy and tyre allocation left him unable to deliver when it counted. Hamilton noted: “It’s tough. Everyone ahead of me basically had the medium tyre on, but I lost a medium tyre in P2 due to run-plan schedule, and that put me on the back foot."

Despite the setback, Hamilton said he had been expecting to fight for the front row: “As I said, there’s been lots of positives from this weekend. I’ve really felt on it. I honestly thought I was going to be shooting for pole today, so it’s kind of a bit of a shock. I’ll take it on the chin and keep trying.”

Hamilton will line up 12th on Sunday while his teammate Leclerc starts 10th, leaving Ferrari with a difficult task to recover in a race where track position and safety car timing often dictate the outcome.