Hamilton pins Madring pole miss on ‘dodgy set of tyres’

Lewis Hamilton had pole position within his grasp at the inaugural Spanish Grand Prix. Then, according to the Ferrari driver, his tyres decided otherwise.

Hamilton had looked increasingly comfortable around the demanding Madring circuit and carried that momentum into the opening run of Q3, when he posted the benchmark time to briefly put Ferrari at the top of the order.

But the final shootout turned the tables. Lando Norris found a sensational lap to snatch pole, while Kimi Antonelli and Max Verstappen also leapfrogged Hamilton, leaving the seven-time world champion fourth on the grid for Sunday’s race.

Hamilton was clearly unimpressed with the performance of his final set of Pirelli tyres. On his cooldown lap, he immediately pointed the finger at the rubber, telling his Ferrari pit wall: “It’s a dodgy set of tyres. Sorry guys, I gave it everything.”

Grip vanished when it mattered

The frustration was understandable given the pace Hamilton had shown moments earlier.

His Ferrari had felt particularly strong during his first Q3 run, only for the balance and available grip to seemingly deteriorate when the pressure was at its highest.

Speaking after qualifying, Hamilton expanded on what he felt had gone wrong.

"[The] car felt pretty awesome in Q3 run one, and then just didn't have any more grip or power in that last lap,” he said.

Hamilton had actually managed to improve his time on his second attempt, but the improvement was marginal and nowhere near enough to match the gains made by Norris, Antonelli and Verstappen.

"[The] second lap was just as good as the other one, because [it was] the same time, pretty much. I think I was a little bit, half a tenth, quicker or something like that,” he added.

"For some reason, we went into that last lap, and as I came around the last corner, I had understeer, and I was like, 'Yeah, maybe these front tyres are not switched on.'

"It just turns out I just had more rear and more understeer through the lap."

The fourth-place result was particularly frustrating because Hamilton had entered Q3 looking like a genuine contender for the front row. Instead, Ferrari will have to settle for third-row-adjacent territory, with Hamilton starting one position ahead of teammate Charles Leclerc.

Ferrari faces a tyre-degradation gamble

Hamilton’s qualifying disappointment also came against the backdrop of a difficult final practice session, in which he crashed his Ferrari into the wall at the final corner.

Despite the damage, he initially attempted to continue towards the pits before eventually bringing the car to a halt following instructions from his team.

Leclerc, meanwhile, will start fifth after qualifying just behind his teammate. The Monegasque was also left frustrated by the narrow margins, particularly given Ferrari’s apparent competitiveness over a single lap.

"[I'm] not very happy," Leclerc told Sky Sports.

"There's only a tenth and a half that separates us from the pole. Knowing that everything is about qualifying here, most likely, it's going to be a bit of a difficult race tomorrow.

"However, we'll do our best preparation. Tyre degradation is going to be key, probably more than any other races this season, considering what we've seen in free practices. So, we'll have to be on it and maximise what we've got."

• 2026 Spanish Grand Prix - Qualifying Results

That warning could prove significant on Sunday. With the Madring already proving punishing on its tyres, Ferrari’s inability to secure the front-row start it appeared capable of achieving could leave Hamilton and Leclerc needing to manufacture opportunities rather than simply wait for them.

For Hamilton, however, the immediate frustration will be more straightforward: after briefly looking like the man to beat, he believes the final set of rubber simply refused to give him the grip he needed to finish the job.

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