Hamilton says Ferrari need to ‘come back fighting for a better day’ after tough Qatar Sprint Qualifying

Lewis Hamilton has admitted that Ferrari have a lot of homework to do if he has any chance of progressing forward in the Qatar Sprint after he qualified 18th, marking another shock early exit for the seven-time World Champion.

After a challenging weekend in Las Vegas saw him finish Qualifying in P20, finding his old form would have been a boost for the Briton in Qatar.

However, Hamilton faced a tough Sprint Qualifying at the Lusail International Circuit as he fought to find the right time to set a lap with all 20 cars jostling for space.

The track rapidly evolved and his first effort put him in the bottom five before his final lap proved to only be enough for an eventual P18 result, leading to Hamilton concluding that the struggles with the car were “the same as always”.

Prompted on whether a new wing that aimed to increase downforce helped his time, he replied: “No, clearly not.” Pressed on whether there were any positives to take into the Sprint, he added: "The weather’s nice."

At the end of SQ1, he reported over the radio that his Ferrari wouldn’t go any quicker, but team mate Charles Leclerc also struggled to extract maximum performance as he marginally squeezed through to SQ2 in P13, albeit four-tenths faster than Hamilton. The Monegasque went on to qualify P9, sandwiched by the Williams pair of Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon.

While the session was another challenging session in Hamilton's maiden campaign with the team, he ended the day eager to reset and look ahead to an improved result in the 19-lap Sprint.

“Tough day out there,” he said in a team press release. “We tried a couple of different set ups and it just didn’t work out for us, but we’ll dig into the data tonight and figure out how to come back fighting for a better day tomorrow.”