Lewis Hamilton questioned Ferrari’s potential after qualifying fifth, suggesting the SF-25 lacked the pace to fight for pole.
Lewis Hamilton qualified fifth on the grid for the Canadian Grand Prix, while his teammate Charles Leclerc only managed eighth. The Monegasque driver missed out on his final flying lap, which had shown strong potential.
For the seven-time world champion, there was no doubt—behind the wheel of the Ferrari SF-25, there wasn’t much more performance to extract today in Montreal.
“We did our best with the setup,” said Hamilton.
“We worked tirelessly all weekend to pick up the pace, but I don’t think the car had much more to offer. I really don’t believe we could have competed with the front runners, and we have to accept that.”
“Charles had a good start to his lap, but obviously didn’t finish it. Maybe there were a few more tenths to gain, but I don’t think that would’ve been enough to secure the front row in my opinion.”
“But the other drivers were also on mediums, and I really don’t understand why we didn’t consider that. We believed—at least that’s what we were told—that the softs were the better option, so that’s what we went with.”
Can he hope for a strong race from the third row?
“I hope so, yes. Whether the issues from Spain return or not—though I hope they don’t. We’ve done everything we can to mitigate them, so I’m really hoping for a good day tomorrow.”
“I really love this circuit. Every time I drive this Ferrari, it’s like my first experience on each track, and it’s so different from the Mercedes that adapting is really tough. But being fifth, I hope I can fight. We have fresh tyres, a new medium and two new hards, so I might have a slight advantage over the cars ahead. I’m still aiming for the podium, and that’s what I’ll try to achieve tomorrow.”
Charles Leclerc, however, had a very different view from his teammate: he was convinced he had lost a potential pole position for Ferrari. Did he feel hindered by Isack Hadjar?
“Hindered is a strong word—it’s not the right one—he didn’t do anything wrong, but with these cars on a track with walls, when you have a car two seconds or even a second and a half ahead, you lose all the downforce and it gets very tricky, so I lost the rear in Turn 6. I’m very frustrated because up to that point, I think we were fighting for pole. The feeling was really good, but we can only blame ourselves—we went out too early in Q3, and I made the mistake. It would’ve been better to lose a tenth in a corner than not to finish the lap.”
“I think today, the car was good enough to go for pole. I don’t know if it would’ve been enough because we saw there was a tyre strategy at play, with Mercedes choosing mediums, but I felt very confident since FP3 and it would’ve been close. I’m very disappointed not to be starting up front.”
Team Principal Fred Vasseur pointed out that Leclerc’s time in the first sector was comparable to that of George Russell, who secured pole position.
“That first sector time went really well—he was a tenth faster than Russell. I don’t want to say he would’ve taken pole, even if he believes so, because there were still two-thirds of the lap to go, but we were there, on the pace, and everything was going well up to that corner.”
“Now, that’s how it is—we have to focus on tomorrow.”
