Lewis Hamilton cut a dejected figure on Saturday at Interlagos, admitting that his São Paulo Grand Prix weekend was effectively over after a miserable qualifying left him just 13th on the grid.
The Ferrari driver – who had arrived in Brazil hoping to rebuild momentum after a string of difficult races – was once again left searching for answers, describing his mental state as “not good” and his weekend as “another write-off.”
Hamilton’s qualifying unravelled in Q2, where he found himself unable to generate tyre temperature in Ferrari’s SF-25. While team-mate Charles Leclerc hustled his car into the top three, Hamilton was left more than half a second adrift, an outcome that he said had little to do with set-up.
“The set-up is fine, just couldn’t get the tyres working,” Hamilton explained, referring to a familiar theme this season. Pressed on where the time had gone, he repeated bluntly: “Tyre temps.”
When asked whether Ferrari’s processes contributed to the issue, Hamilton shrugged off the suggestion.
“I don't know, I can't remember if it's the same problem as before, it's not the same, I think the execution in terms of the times we got out and everything is fine, it's just the rears are at a place that I can't get to temperature for them to stop that,” he said.
The seven-time world champion said that even the morning’s Sprint race had yielded no valuable insights. “You can't overtake,” he said flatly.
Hamilton’s morale takes a hit
The body language said it all. Hamilton stood in the media pen with slumped shoulders as he described another “bad weekend,” confessing that the string of underperforming Saturdays was taking a mental toll.
“Um… not great, not great,” he said when asked how he was coping. “I'll just do what I can tomorrow. It just continues to go bad every weekend, but I'll get up tomorrow and try again.”
His outlook for Sunday offered little optimism. “I'm not expecting anything to be honest, but we'll see what happens — it's another write-off weekend I guess.”
Leclerc Hail Perfect Execution
While Hamilton wallowed in frustration, Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc offered a stark contrast, delighted to have extracted everything from a tricky car to secure third on the grid.
“I don't want to over exaggerate, I think, the turnaround that we've had because we are only speaking about a tenth and a half, maybe,” Leclerc said. “But the thing is that this weekend, a tenth and a half means out of Q1 or inside Q3.”
“I think where we did a really good job is by executing everything perfectly from Q1 to Q3 because we knew that we were… I mean, it's been a very difficult weekend since FP1 and we knew that we will struggle to get to Q2 and then Q3.
“But we did everything perfect. So I'm very happy about that.”
As Leclerc targets another podium, Hamilton faces a long, uphill Sunday – one he already seems to have emotionally written off.
São Paulo Grand Prix - Qualifying results
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