Lewis Hamilton, the seven-time F1 champion, was left devastated after qualifying in 12th place in their home Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix in Italy on Saturday, May 18. His Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc, who finished in 11th place in qualifying for the Sunday’s race, was disappointed with the car’s performance as well, saying sorry to the home fans for not delivering the result, while admitting that the team isn’t good enough currently.
Notably, the pole position for the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix went the way of Oscar Piastri of McLaren, who set a time of 1:14:570, keeping Red Bull’s Max Verstappen behind in second place. He was more than a second quicker than Lewis Hamilton, which shows how much behind Ferrari are to McLaren currently, while some of the other teams have managed to get past them as well.
I feel gutted, I guess. Because the car was generally feeling really good: Lewis Hamilton
The Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari, also called Imola, is just about 50 miles southeast of Ferrari’s factory in the Maranello area in Italy, and their two drivers weren’t able to live up to the expectations of the home fans. Lewis Hamilton was quoted as saying, as per BBC Sport, “I feel gutted, I guess. Because the car was generally feeling really good. To be honest, I felt like the car, the set-up was just right. The brakes were working, everything was kind of in place. And we just can’t go quicker.”
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Meanwhile, Charles Leclerc gave an assessment about the poor day out at the Imola on a Saturday afternoon, and said, “Very disappointed, especially at home at such a special grand prix for the team, it hurts. It would have hurt anyway at whatever track, but here it hurts even more. I have no words about our performance today. The only thing we can say is that we are sorry for this kind of performance at home. We are just not good enough at the moment.”
After the first six races of the F1 2025 season, Ferrari drivers have combined for just one podium, which was a third place finish for Charles Leclerc at Saudi Arabian Grand Prix, while Lewis Hamilton won the Sprint Race in China earlier as well.
