Formula 1 - Lewis Hamilton's Brazil misery: Mood turns sour in qualifying, Leclerc saves Ferrari

In Formula 1 qualifying in Brazil, only Charles Leclerc managed to pilot his Ferrari into the top 10. While Leclerc praised his team for a strong Saturday performance, Lewis Hamilton, after another Q2 exit, was clearly fed up with the weekend.

"I don't want to exaggerate our turnaround, we're probably only talking about one and a half tenths, but this weekend, one and a half tenths is the difference between Q1 and Q3," said Leclerc, who certainly put on a surprisingly strong showing at the end of qualifying. After his first run, he was even briefly second and less than a tenth of a second off the top spot. However, that was more due to a mistake by Lando Norris.

Norris rectified the situation on his second attempt, pulling almost three-tenths of a second ahead of Leclerc. Kimi Antonelli in the Mercedes also managed to squeeze through, ultimately relegating Leclerc to third on the grid. But compared to the sprint qualifying session, in which Leclerc spun, nearly crashed out in SQ2, and then qualified eighth, this was a significant improvement.

"I think where we were good today was in the perfect execution from Q1 to Q3," Leclerc explained. The whole of Saturday in Brazil was dominant, starting with a solid comeback to P5 in the sprint, and then the right setup changes during the lunch break. "That also helped us move forward. All in all, we can be very satisfied with third place on the grid; I don't think anyone expected that after the difficult start to the weekend."

Lewis Hamilton, on the other side of the garage, felt this perfect execution was lacking. "The setup was fine, I just couldn't get the tires into the right temperature window," he complained after qualifying. He then shifted the blame more towards the team, specifically their preparation with tire warmers and the like: "It depends on what's being done in the garage."

"I think our timing on the outrun was okay, it's just that the rear tires were in a state where I couldn't get them into the operating window," said Hamilton. He was then practically unable to improve on his second Q2 run. At three-tenths of a second, the gap to Leclerc was still manageable, but too much in such a tight field. The result was even a step backward compared to the previous day. He will start 13th, two places lower than on Friday.

While Hamilton had taken it with humor the day before , he's now had enough of this weekend. He answers the final question about his chances in the race succinctly: "There's absolutely nothing I can do from here." Leclerc, on the other hand, is clearly more hopeful.

He still struggled in qualifying with the Ferrari, which was particularly poor in the middle sector. In fact, he was faster than Norris and Antonelli in the first sector on his last lap, but in the long corners of the middle sector the gap grew to over three and a half tenths, some of which Leclerc was able to make up in the final meters.

But Leclerc hopes that this will only be a problem when driving at the limit with empty fuel tanks. In race trim, he has significantly more confidence in the Ferrari's balance, even after the sprint, despite having spent almost the entire race stuck behind Fernando Alonso and only managing to overtake the Aston Martin shortly before the end.

"I think the pace was quite good on that one lap where I had a clear run," Leclerc said, clinging to his last hope for the race and a battle with McLaren and Mercedes at the front. The full starting grid is available here: