Lewis Hamilton (6th) humiliated by Leclerc in Baku: Ferrari partly to blame

It’s clear this year: Lewis Hamilton is getting on much better with the 2026 Ferrari than he did with the red racing car a year earlier. From this perspective alone, it’s strange what happened on the Baku City Circuit.

Following the conclusion of qualifying for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, this is the picture at Ferrari: Monegasque driver Charles Leclerc in second place on the grid (only George Russell was faster, albeit by a significant margin), whilst Lewis Hamilton, as the sixth-fastest driver, is only on the third row; Baku specialist Leclerc has just beaten the experienced Englishman by half a second!

Even those who aren’t members of the Hamilton fan club have to admit: this isn’t normal. So what happened to the seven-time world champion in qualifying?

The 41-year-old Englishman says: “Another pretty poor qualifying session. We’re trying everything. And Q1 and Q2 had gone quite well (Hamilton was initially fourth, M.B.), Q1 was actually fine.”

“But when we went into Q3, they changed the plan. Instead of doing two runs, we had to wait, and as I was ahead of Charles, I had no one in front of me to slipstream. That alone cost us a lot of time.”

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“Either way, we wouldn’t have been able to stand up to Mercedes anyway. They’re simply far too fast for us on the straights.”

“For that reason, it’ll be difficult to keep up with them in the race, let alone challenge them. I’ll give it a go anyway.”