Hamilton 'devastated' by Ferrari's qualifying shocker on home debut

Lewis Hamilton described Ferrari's shock double early elimination in Emilia Romagna Grand Prix qualifying as "devastating" after the Italian team's disappointing season hit a new low on home soil.

For the first time at historic Imola, Ferrari failed to get a car into the top-10 positions on the grid after Charles Leclerc and Hamilton dropped out of Q2 in 11th and 12th places respectively. It was also the first time in almost a year since last June's Canadian GP that Ferrari had failed to reach Q3.

Hamilton, who qualified one-tenth of a second behind Leclerc, is racing in front of the Ferrari's famous Tifosi fans for the first time this weekend.

A disappointed seven-time world champion told Sky Sports F1:

"Tough one. Ultimately, I feel super gutted, devastated that we weren't able to get through. I really feel like we had made so many positive steps through the weekend. The car was generally feeling better, brakes were better today, the balance was really nice. In Q2, run one felt decent, and then when we put the new tyres on, for some I just didn't have any more grip and couldn't go any faster. You see everyone else, they managed to switch the tyres on clearly. We definitely need to look into that."

Elaborating on his disappointment, Hamilton added:

"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 and Ferrari and to not make it to Q3, it's definitely bittersweet."

The Ferrari pair had started the final Q2 runs inside the top 10 in fifth and sixth positions but left themselves vulnerable to elimination after failing to set improved times on new sets of soft tyres on their respective final attempts.

Asked if there had been more from them to extract in the car, Leclerc said:

"I don't think so. You can always do a little bit more with a lap and improve quite a few things, but we are just nowhere at the moment. There's not enough performance in the car, and I keep repeating myself. There's just not the potential that we would hope inside this car at the moment, and we need to be better."

Ferrari drivers now braced for 'tough' and 'very hard' race

Already a mammoth 152 points behind Constructors' Championship leaders McLaren, fourth-placed Ferrari will now aim to try and salvage a respectable result from their lowly grid spots in Sunday's 63-lap grand prix.

However, neither Hamilton nor Leclerc are expecting that to prove an easy challenge.

"It's all big ifs. It's a very difficult track to overtake," said Hamilton of the narrow 3.05-mile Imola layout. "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. Just getting into the top 10 and getting further up the top 10 is going to be tough. There's a lot of quick cars ahead of us."

Leclerc, who had shown strong race pace in Friday practice, agreed.

"Very, very hard," he said. "But I can fight as much as I want, but at the moment I cannot do miracles. This is what there is in the car. I'm trying to extract the maximum out of it. That's it."