Hamilton ‘shocked’ by Q2 exit as Leclerc explains costly crash in dramatic Baku Qualifying for Ferrari

Lewis Hamilton has described his “big shock” at dropping out in the Q2 phase during Saturday’s Qualifying session for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, believing that he had the pace to “fight for the top three”.

Hamilton set the pace at the Baku City Circuit on Friday and was the fastest of the Ferrari drivers during final practice in P4 – behind only Max Verstappen’s Red Bull and McLaren pair Oscar Piastri and Lando Norris.

However, in an incident-filled Qualifying that featured a host of red flags and saw drivers torn between using Pirelli’s soft and medium compound tyres, Hamilton fell at the second hurdle and will start back in 12th position.

Asked to reflect on his session, and whether with hindsight he might have taken a different approach with his tyre strategy, Hamilton said: “Yeah, for sure. Firstly, we would have done what everyone else did and have three [sets of] mediums going into P3, then into Qualifying we would have had three mediums, and we should have used a medium in Q2.

“That’s what everyone else did. We knew that it was quicker… I can’t tell you why we didn’t end up using it, but we’ll take it internal. There’s been lots of progress.”

He added: “I’m still optimistic for the race I think, in terms of trying to move forwards. But wow, I honestly thought I was fighting for the top three, so it’s a big shock.”

While team mate Charles Leclerc made it through to Q3, the Monegasque ended his day in the barriers with a crash at Turn 15 – leaving him timeless in 10th place.

“It’s been an extremely difficult weekend overall for me,” said Leclerc, who had claimed the previous four pole positions in Azerbaijan. “Normally Baku is obviously a track I really enjoy driving, but it’s been a bit of a pain from the beginning of the weekend, struggling with the balance of the car.

“I changed quite a lot the car going into Qualifying, which seemed to be better, but unfortunately we couldn’t make the medium work anymore. We started to struggle massively in bringing the medium [up] to temperature, then I did this mistake which obviously cost us a lot. Not much more to add.”

He signed off: “I think it’s going to be a very tough race tomorrow. Starting from the back [of the top 10]… to come back in front will be tricky.”