Hamilton admits Ferrari ‘deserve better’ after latest Q1 exit as Leclerc salvages P5 thanks to ‘huge risk’ paying off

Lewis Hamilton was left to rue a third successive Q1 elimination on Saturday night, with the Ferrari driver narrowly failing to make it over the first Qualifying hurdle in Abu Dhabi.

Hamilton, who also dropped out in the opening phase in Las Vegas and Qatar, missed the Q2 cut by a few hundredths of a second after an encouraging final lap came undone in the final sector.

He now faces the prospect of a 16th-place start at the Yas Marina Circuit, and was at a loss for words when he arrived in the media pen to speak to the world’s broadcasters and journalists.

“I think most of the lap was good enough to get through, I just didn’t finish it,” he sighed, having also apologised to the team over the radio on his way back to the pits.

Hamilton’s tricky session came after a crash in final practice, and the seven-time World Champion added: “The team did a mega job [to repair the car]. They deserve better, for sure.”

On the other side of the Ferrari garage, Charles Leclerc managed to drag his car into the final Q3 segment and secure fifth on the grid, having made “massive” set-up changes after Friday practice in a bid to find more pace.

“I’m very pleased with P5,” he said. “It’s a shame to be pleased with P5, but that’s all we had today. I’m satisfied with the performance of today and the laps in Q3.

“I just hope that next year we’ll start on the right foot, and we’ll be back winning races, because that’s all I want.

“Let’s say if we look only at this weekend, it’s been a good recovery from the team. We’ve changed massively the car from FP2 to FP3, took a huge risk, and it paid off, because we probably would have been P9, something around that, if we didn’t change the car.”

Asked about his outlook for Sunday’s race, with the three title contenders starting just ahead of him, Leclerc signed off: “I don’t know. Surely, I will take massive risks tomorrow and try and be on the podium for the last race – that’s all that matters to me.

“Of course, there’s a title fight, but on my side the only thing I’m looking at is what can I do for Ferrari, and that is trying to maximise tomorrow’s result no matter who I fight. That will be my mentality going into tomorrow.”