The air was electric at Imola as Scuderia Ferrari HP arrived at their home Grand Prix with high hopes and thousands of passionate tifosi in the stands. But Saturday’s qualifying session for the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix brought more frustration than celebration, as both Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton failed to progress into Q3, leaving the red team with a lot to do on race day.
Despite promising pace in Friday’s practice sessions, qualifying exposed the challenges Ferrari still faces. Both Leclerc and Hamilton made it safely through Q1, navigating two red flags caused by heavy crashes from Yuki Tsunoda and Franco Colapinto. The team opted for a single set of Soft tyres in Q1, keeping another fresh set ready for Q2. However, that strategy didn’t pay off.
Leclerc clocked a 1’15”604 while Hamilton managed a 1’15”765 on their initial Q2 runs—good, but not good enough. Switching to new tyres for a final push yielded no improvement, and as rivals shaved off thousandths of a second, the Ferrari duo were bumped out: Leclerc finishing 11th, Hamilton 12th.
“It’s disappointing, not just for us but also for our tifosi,” said Leclerc. “Everything has to be perfect on a track like this, and today it wasn’t. I’ll reset tonight and give it everything tomorrow.”
Hamilton echoed the sentiment. “We just didn’t have the grip we needed on the last lap. Overtaking here is tough, but we’ll explore every option. This isn’t the result we wanted at home, but we’ll keep pushing.”
Team Principal Fred Vasseur didn’t mince words: “We didn’t get the job done. Our fastest laps came on used tyres from Q1, which is hard to accept. The tyre behaviour was unpredictable, but we also didn’t execute as well as we could have. We’ll have to take some risks tomorrow, especially with strategy.”
The race on Sunday won’t be easy. Imola is known for its narrow layout and limited overtaking opportunities. With 63 laps and 309 kilometers ahead, Ferrari will need precision, bold strategy, and maybe a bit of luck to salvage strong points from a difficult grid position.
At their home track, the pressure is always higher—but so is the motivation. And if there’s one thing Ferrari never lacks, it’s the will to fight back.
