{"id":107064,"date":"2025-05-16T19:27:09","date_gmt":"2025-05-16T19:27:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/107064\/"},"modified":"2025-05-16T19:27:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-16T19:27:09","slug":"why-ferraris-qualifying-pace-at-f1-imola-gp-will-be-a-lottery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/107064\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Ferrari’s qualifying pace at F1 Imola GP will be a ‘lottery’"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lewis Hamilton has suggested that Ferrari\u2019s qualifying pace for the Formula 1<\/a> Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix<\/a> will be a \u201clottery\u201d due to the sensitivity of the car.<\/p>\n

The Briton endured a tale of two sessions at the Imola circuit, finishing fifth in FP1, less than a tenth off Oscar Piastri\u2019s fastest time.<\/p>\n

However, FP2 saw him struggle, ending the day in 11th place, six tenths adrift of the quickest time, again set by Piastri\u2019s McLaren.<\/p>\n

Ferrari has brought minor upgrades to the SF-25 for this weekend, but Hamilton told Sky F1 that just a small adjustment to the car between the two sessions was what made the difference.<\/p>\n

\u201cFP1 was good, I was really really happy with the car,\u201d he said. \u201cFelt like we\u2019d made a step forward and it\u2019s feeling really positive. <\/p>\n

\u201cI literally changed the two tiniest things that shouldn\u2019t have had barely any effect at all. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe smallest change we\u2019ve probably done this year, and we had some brake issues that then made a massive difference, so that was a fight with that.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s been a quite a big issue all year, actually. I\u2019ve never experienced that before, so that\u2019s a new thing for me this year.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked what his feelings were for the car\u2019s performance in qualifying, Hamilton joked that it would be a case of gambling and hoping for the best.<\/p>\n

\u201cI mean, it\u2019s a lottery, we\u2019ll roll the dice. We\u2019ll put one [change] on and it works, and we\u2019ll put another on one and it doesn\u2019t and we\u2019ll see! <\/p>\n

\u201cSo I hope tomorrow we figure something out, we\u2019re working on it for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"After a promising FP1, FP2 was a different story for Lewis Hamilton<\/p>\n

Leclerc admits grid position vital at Imola<\/p>\n

Charles Leclerc returned to duty on Friday after missing Thursday\u2019s media day with ill health, and finished the day 12th and sixth, but still teetering around half-a-second off the pace.<\/p>\n

Leclerc told Sky F1 that Ferrari\u2019s one-lap pace is still left wanting, which renders the improved race pace irrelevant due to Imola\u2019s tight layout.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe whole FP1 was very tricky,\u201d he said. \u201cWe\u2019ve had some different problems. FP2, we put everything together a bit more and it was feeling better on my side, but still we are lacking performance we know a weak point is the qualifying pace and we still need to work on that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Asked if he was optimistic about making a push for the front row, Leclerc said that the car was not realistically going to be challenging the front runners.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo be better than today? Yes,\u201d he answered. \u201cTo go and take pole? Honestly, I don\u2019t think we\u2019ve got that in the car for now, but the race pace was strong so that\u2019s positive but it\u2019s also a track where overtaking is very difficult, so we\u2019ve got to focus on our qualifying pace, that\u2019s where we are putting all our thought into, and I hope it will pay the price for tomorrow.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE<\/strong> \u2013 Lewis Hamilton unaware of \u2018how tough\u2019 Ferrari F1 adaptation would be<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lewis Hamilton has suggested that Ferrari\u2019s qualifying pace for the Formula 1 Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix will be a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":107065,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4103],"tags":[4199,997,707,4200,49002,79,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-107064","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-f1","8":"tag-f1","9":"tag-ferrari","10":"tag-formula-1","11":"tag-formula1","12":"tag-imolagp","13":"tag-sports","14":"tag-uk","15":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114519162709324297","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107064","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=107064"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/107064\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/107065"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=107064"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=107064"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=107064"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}