Lewis Hamilton claims Ferrari tyre strategy error caused his shock Q2 exit as the team endured a disastrous Azerbaijan Grand Prix qualifying compounded by Charles Leclerc‘s crash in the early stages of Q3.
The seven-time world champion openly attributed the setback to a critical tyre strategy error executed by his team, and believes he had the pace to challenge for a grid slot at the sharp end of the field.
Hamilton, who had shown promising pace in earlier sessions at the Baku City Circuit, was left visibly frustrated as he failed to progress to the final stages of qualifying, ultimately locking out 12th position on the grid.
After topping the second practice session on Friday—his best performance in a Ferrari to date this season—Hamilton had high hopes for a competitive qualifying performance.
His confidence was buoyed by the car’s improved handling and pace which contrasted sharply with his previous frustrations over adapting to the SF-25.
On paper, the strategy devised by the Ferrari engineers aimed to optimize tyre performance for both Lewis Hamilton and his teammate Charles Leclerc.
However, the plan unraveled in a chaotic qualifying session that included a record six red flags, adding layers of complexity to time-sensitive decisions.
A key point of contention was the tyre compound Ferrari deployed during Q2. The team insisted on using the soft tyre compounds during the crucial qualifying runs which ended up to be a fundamental misjudgment.
While the team held Hamilton from using all the medium sets to keep them for Q3, all drivers who utilized the compound in Q2 were considerably quicker by about three-tenths of a second.
With rivals capitalizing on the trend, Hamilton found himself in elimination outside the top ten, setting him up for a challenging race day where overtaking on the Baku street circuit is notoriously difficult.
“Honestly, I’m obviously so disappointed,” said Hamilton. “Yesterday the car was feeling good, today there was some direction that we ended up going which on paper looked like it was the best place for us to be.
“Our pace had been good, we’d been progressing, I was feeling really on it, didn’t make any mistakes, you didn’t see me go down any exit roads, it was just that we didn’t have the right tyre on at the end and it’s tough.
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“Everyone ahead of me basically had the medium tyre on, but I lost a medium tyre in FP2 and due to our run plan, and that put me on the back foot.
“So not great, but we’ll take it internal. 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 a pole today and so it’s kind of a bit of a shock, but I’ll take it on a chin and keep trying.”
Compounding Ferrari’s woes was Charles Leclerc’s crash in Q3 which was attributed to a loss of car balance albeit partially linked to tyre temperature struggles.
“It’s been an extremely difficult weekend overall for me,” said Leclerc. “Normally Baku is obviously a track I really enjoy driving, but it’s been a bit of a pain from the beginning of the weekend, struggling with the balance of the car.
“I changed quite a lot the car going into Qualifying, which seemed to be better, but unfortunately we couldn’t make the medium work anymore.
“We started to struggle massively in bringing the medium up to temperature, then I did this mistake which obviously cost us a lot. Not much more to add.
“I think it’s going to be a very tough race tomorrow. Starting from the back [of the top 10]… to come back in front will be tricky.”
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