Ferrari and Antonelli battling back on home soil and Alonso with a point to prove – What To Watch For in the Emilia-Romagna GP

Ferrari and Antonelli battling back on home soil and Alonso with a point to prove – What To Watch For in the Emilia-Romagna GP

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Charles Leclerc admitted that he had “no words” for Ferrari’s level of performance after a disastrous Qualifying at the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix, while Lewis Hamilton was also “devastated” not to see progress reflected in the results as the pair exited Q2 in P11 and P12 respectively.

In what was a highly eventful session that had already witnessed two crashes during Q1, Leclerc and Hamilton found themselves at risk of elimination as the second segment neared its close, before both being pushed out after a gamble from the Aston Martin cars to bolt on the medium tyre saw them reach the top 10 at the Scuderia’s expense.

READ MORE: Piastri beats Verstappen and Russell to pole in dramatic Imola Qualifying session

As such, Leclerc cut a downbeat figure following Qualifying and conceded that it had been especially painful to have such a tough day in front of the squad’s home fans.

“[I’m] very disappointed, especially at home, at such a special Grand Prix for the team – it just hurts,” the Monegasque said. “It would have hurt anyway, whatever [the] track, but here it hurts even more. I have no words about our performance today.

Leclerc on P11 in Qualifying: ‘Very disappointed – especially at home… it hurts’

“The only thing we can say is that we are sorry for this kind of performance at home and in general. We are just not good enough at the moment and we’ve got to do better. Unfortunately this is all I can say at the moment and this is all we are trying to do, is to be better and to work in the right direction.”

In terms of whether he can rescue a decent result on Sunday – with the car’s race trim seemingly looking stronger – Leclerc downplayed the chances as he responded: “Race pace was strong, but we are starting P11. Apart from if something is happening crazy, it’s going to be difficult.”

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Hamilton was left similarly disappointed by the outcome of the session, particularly given that the seven-time World Champion felt the team had made steps forward that were ultimately not evident in the final result.

“[It’s been a] tough one,” he explained to Sky Sports F1. “Ultimately I feel super gutted, devastated, that we weren’t able to get through. I really feel like we have made so many positive steps through the weekend.

Hamilton left ‘devastated’ as both Ferraris are knocked out in Q2

“The car was generally feeling better, the brakes were better today, the balance was really nice, and in Q2 run one felt decent, and when we put the new tyres on for some reason it just didn’t have more grip and couldn’t go any faster.

“When you see everyone else, they managed to switch the tyres on clearly. We need to look into that, the reason it’s devastating is just to see everyone who’s worked so hard in the garage, to be in Italy for the first Italian race for me in Ferrari and not to make it to Q3, it’s definitely bittersweet.”

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Like Leclerc, Hamilton is not feeling overly hopeful about his chances of battling forward on race day at Imola. When pushed on whether he could benefit should there be an incident or a Safety Car, the Briton answered: “It’s all big ifs, I don’t know.

“It’s a very difficult track to overtake [on], so I think tomorrow it will be hard to progress. We’ll have to battle hard to be able to figure a way to progress forwards, but just getting to the top 10 and getting further up the top 10 is going to be tough. There are quick cars in front of us.”