Hamilton admits P8 ‘not where I want to be’ as Leclerc concedes Ferrari ‘lacking overall performance’ after Suzuka Qualifying

There were mixed feelings at Ferrari after Qualifying for the Japanese Grand Prix, with Lewis Hamilton not satisfied with his final result of P8 while Charles Leclerc felt he had maximised his car’s potential in P4, despite adding that the team are “lacking overall performance”.

Hamilton experienced some ups and downs throughout the session, which included an impeding incident by Williams’ Carlos Sainz during Q2 – for which the Spaniard was later handed a three-place grid drop – that the Scuderia driver voiced his annoyance about over the team radio.

After a small slide during his first flying lap of Q3, Hamilton was unable to improve during the final runs and ended Qualifying in eighth place, a position that the seven-time World Champion admitted was not what he had hoped for.

“I generally struggled throughout the Qualifying session,” Hamilton reflected afterwards. “I think when we got to Q3, I just wasn’t able to improve.

Hamilton: P8 ‘not where I want to be’

“I had a big snap of oversteer in the middle sector on the first lap, and then [in the] second lap I was only down in that sector so, yeah, not where I want to be.”

Despite this, Hamilton is remaining positive about the Grand Prix, which comes amid an uncertain weather forecast suggesting that rain could potentially hit Suzuka on Sunday.

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“Still I’m excited for tomorrow,” the 40-year-old said. “It still can be fun from where I am.”

Team mate Leclerc, meanwhile, will line up four positions ahead after a decent showing in Q3 put him as the closest challenger to polesitter Max Verstappen and the McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.

Leclerc: P4 ‘the best we could get out of it today’

“This was definitely the best we could get out of it today,” Leclerc commented after the session. “It’s on one hand disappointing because P4 is never what you want to fight for, but on the other hand I’m quite satisfied with the day off [the back of] yesterday.

“It was a day where we’ve done big changes on my side to try and find a way to be a bit more comfortable in the car, because since the beginning of the year it hasn’t been exactly where I want it to be, and it’s been really positive so far.

“We’ve maximised the car potential, but we are just lacking overall performance at the moment.”

Pushed on whether he would welcome the chance of showers on Sunday, the Monegasque answered: “I don’t know. I would like to check the direction that I took yesterday with the set-up and being very aggressive – I would like to check it [in] a dry race, so I would prefer a dry race.”