Lewis Hamilton: Ferrari driver admits shock at Azerbaijan GP qualifying Q2 exit and questions tyre tactics in Baku

​​​​​​A disappointed Lewis Hamilton admitted it was a shock to see his front-running start to the Azerbaijan Grand Prix weekend give way to 12th place on the grid as Ferrari's hopes of a strong qualifying in Baku evaporated with both drivers.

Hamilton had topped the Friday practice times ahead of team-mate Charles Leclerc and then continued to run in the top six through Saturday's final practice and then the first knockout stage of qualifying.

However, he ended up being knocked out in Q2 after failing to set a fast enough time on the soft tyres for the top-10 shoot-out.

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Leclerc, who ran the mediums in the second session, progressed to Q3 with his final lap although then swiftly consigned himself to 10th place on the grid by crashing in the early stages of the final stage.

Reflecting on what had gone wrong for him, Hamilton told Sky Sports F1: "I'm obviously so disappointed.

"Yesterday the car was feeling good, today there was a direction that we ended up going, which on paper looked like it was the best place for us to be, and ultimately it…

"Our pace had been good. We'd been progressing, I was feeling really on it, didn't make any mistakes, didn't see me down any exit roads. It was just that we didn't have the right tyre on at the end.

"It's tough. Everyone ahead of me basically had the medium tyre on, but I lost a medium tyre in P2 due to run-plan schedule, and that put me on the back foot."

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'We'll take it internal' - how Hamilton's Q2 hopes evaporated on softs

F1's teams have faced a conundrum all weekend in Baku about when to use the soft and medium tyre with the latter unusually proving to be a match, or even superior, to the supposedly faster compound in certain circumstances and on certain cars.

Hamilton went in to qualifying with one fewer medium tyre left in his allocation than Leclerc after running it in second practice, whereas his team-mate exclusively ran softs on Friday.

After an early red flag in Q2 - the fourth of a record six during a chaotic and elongated qualifying - had been triggered by a crash from Oliver Bearman, the session resumed with 11 minutes remaining and none of the leading drivers having a lap time on the timesheet.

Leclerc was Ferrari's first car back onto the track and ran the medium tyres, with Hamilton following behind on the softs.

But things started to go wrong at the start of their first timed laps when Leclerc outbraked himself and ran wide into the first corner, with the subsequent yellow flags forcing Hamilton to slow down behind. Both drivers completed unrepresentative slow laps as a result, leaving them still without a true lap time.

After cool-down laps, the Ferrari drivers went for timed attempts again and while Hamilton completed his to go eighth fastest, Leclerc made another mistake by running wide at Turn Three.

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Leclerc then headed to the pits, changing to another set of mediums, but Hamilton continued on track with the same soft tyres. The Briton posted his best time of Q2 with his next attempt but it was only good enough for 10th place, which swiftly became 12th due to improvements from Fernando Alonso and Leclerc.

And while at that point there had still been two minutes on the clock and therefore theoretically enough time to complete a further timed lap, Hamilton pitted at the end of his next tour to confirm his early surprise elimination.

Asked if whether he had a medium tyre available and could therefore have completed a 'hot' live pit stop like Leclerc had done earlier in the session, Hamilton said: "Yeah, but the choice wasn't taken to take it.

"I wanted to but they said that the warm-up was too long or something like that, so then we run out of time and run out of fuel.

"Not great, but we'll take it internal."

The two McLarens, who set the Q2 pace, were the only cars to make it into Q3 on soft tyres rather than mediums.

Hamilton, though, was still taking encouragement from his performance this weekend, adding: "As I said, there's been lots of positives from this weekend.

"I've really felt on it. I honestly thought I was going to be shooting for pole today, so it's kind of a bit of a shock.

"I'll take it on the chin and keep trying."

Vasseur: Tyre choice has been confusing for everybody

When Hamilton's comments were put to him after qualifying, team principal Frederic Vasseur said: "We aborted lap one and you are not fuelling the car to do 10 laps more and we need to push.

"The tyres, honestly, it's a bit of a confusion but I think it's a bit of a confusion for everybody.

"At the end of the day, the pole [from Max Verstappen in Q3] was with softs. Carlos [Sainz, who qualified second] was also shiny with the scrubbed medium but then I think everybody is in the same situation.

"I think it's more to put the tyres in the right window than the choice of the tyre."

Leclerc: Mediums made car worse | What result can Ferrari now salvage?

While Leclerc did make Q3, his run of four successive Baku poles ended when he crashed into the barriers at Turn 15 on his first lap of the final stage.

Ironically, he said he had started to struggle more with the balance of his SF-25 on the medium tyres.

"I think Lewis was a lot more on the pace straightaway and more consistent than I've been during the weekend," said Leclerc.

"I've been struggling massively. Normally I come to Baku and everything flows naturally but this year, unfortunately, it wasn't the case.

"I kind of think I understood why and then in qualifying I changed the car a lot and changed the feeling, and the feeling was getting better until we actually put the medium tyres [on] and then everything went.

"It was very, very difficult from the moment we put the medium tyre on. For some reason yesterday, it felt the better tyre on our car, today it never felt we could reach the right window of the tyre and that made it very tricky."

Polesitter Verstappen aside, the top half of Sunday's grid features an unusual order after championship leaders' McLaren's own problems left their cars seventh and ninth in the order.

"There is opportunity but it's going to be tough to come back in the front," added Leclerc.

"But there is opportunity and I will obviously look forward and try to have a great Sunday with a disappointing Saturday.

"Normally it has been the other way around whenever I came here so I'm looking forward to turn the situation around."

Vasseur added: "We had a good long stint - a long stint of four laps for everybody - [on Friday] but the pace was very consistent

"Last year Norris was able to come back from the back [15th to fourth], we need to be focused on this."

Sky Sports F1's Azerbaijan GP schedule

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Sunday September 21
7.55am: F2 Feature Race
10.30am: Grand Prix Sunday: Azerbaijan GP build-up*
12pm: THE AZERBAIJAN GRAND PRIX*
2pm: Chequered Flag: Azerbaijan GP reaction
3pm: Ted's Notebook

*also live on Sky Sports Main Event

Formula 1 is in Baku for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix with lights out on Sunday at 12pm and build-up from 10.30am, live on Sky Sports F1 and Sky Sports Main Event. Stream Sky Sports with NOW - no contract, cancel anytime