Lewis Hamilton finds 'synergy' with Ferrari in Imola after tough qualifying

Seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton stated that the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix marked the first time he felt truly connected with his Ferrari Formula 1 car since his victory in the China sprint. Hamilton's surprise pole-to-flag win in Shanghai was an anomaly in what has been a challenging season, failing to meet his expectations in his new environment.

Imola initially seemed unlikely to improve his fortunes after he qualified 12th, just behind teammate Charles Leclerc. However, on Sunday, the British driver demonstrated strong race pace, leveraging strategy and timely safety car interventions to climb to fourth place.

Hamilton described the feeling as being in sync with the Ferrari car, which featured subtle upgrades for the weekend, similar to his experience in China. "China was pretty great, but I've always loved when you're fighting from further back and coming through," Hamilton commented. "That's how I started off as a kid. That's always a better feeling than starting and finishing first. But definitely an absolutely mega race and so many positives to take away."

He further elaborated, "The strategy was really fantastic today; they made great calls. In China I felt really aligned with the car and then the only other time is today. I felt that real synergy, and I think the set-up was great. We made a bit of an improvement in our performance for the race."

A persistent issue for Ferrari remains their puzzling qualifying performance, with both Hamilton and Leclerc failing to advance beyond Q2, being outpaced by cars from Williams, Alpine, Aston Martin, and Racing Bulls.

"We've just got to unlock the potential in qualifying," Hamilton acknowledged. "If we had qualified [higher up] we would have been fighting for a podium, which is something we didn't think would be possible."

This morale-boosting performance came at an opportune moment for Hamilton, as he made his home debut as a Ferrari driver in front of a record-breaking crowd of 242,000 spectators across the event.

Reflecting on the experience, he shared, "It's been incredible, what an amazing experience." He added, "Already on the driver's parade lap all the drivers were doing their normal talking, but I really wanted to see the memorial for Ayrton [Senna]. I even took a picture of it."

Hamilton also spoke about the overwhelming support from the Tifosi: "I was taking pictures of the crowd just to see red everywhere. It was just really very reminiscent of when I was growing up watching it on my couch, having a bacon sandwich watching Michael Schumacher racing here with Ferrari and seeing the connection. It was quite an incredible experience to think that I'm now here in one of the two Ferraris. And having that connection with such a large passion, for me it's unbelievable."