F1 News: Lewis Hamilton explains how he lost pole position at the Spanish Grand Prix

Hamilton in red Ferrari hoodie and yellow 2026 British GP cap holding Sky Sports F1 mic — Photo: © IMAGO

Spanish Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton explains how he lost pole position at the Spanish Grand Prix

Hamilton was on course for first pole in three years

Dan Ripley Global Editor

Professional F1 journalist and analyst

Sunday 13 September 2026 08:28

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Lewis Hamilton admitted he lost Ferrari performance that cost him the chance to nail a shock pole position for the Spanish Grand Prix.

The seven-time F1 champion entered qualifying at the brand new Madring circuit on the backfoot, having crashed in FP3 and missing half-an-hour of track time as a result.

Once qualifying got underway though, the 41-year-old was always in the mix for the front runners, going fastest after the first runs of the final Q3 session for the pole position shootout.

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However, in the final runs Hamilton could only marginally improve on his best time, resulting in Lando Norris's McLaren and title rival in Mercedes's Kimi Antonelli knocking him off the front row.

Max Verstappen also beat him to third for Red Bull, meaning He will line up fourth just in front of team-mate Charles Leclerc by 0.006 seconds.

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Hamilton reveals unexpected tyre deg

Speaking after the session to Sky Sports, Hamilton revealed tyre issues stopped him getting the most out of his Ferrari.

He said: "Second lap was just as good as the other one. You know, this is the same time, pretty much. So I think I was a little bit half a 10th quicker or something like that.

"But yeah, for some reason we went into that last lap, and as I started, coming into the last corner, I had understeer, and I was like, 'hey, maybe these front tyres are not switched on, and just turns out I just had more rear and more understeer through the lap.'"

The tyre degradation issue was something Hamilton admitted also caught out Ferrari this weekend.

He added: "We all came into the weekend thinking there'll be not so much deg and tyres would last long. But turns out that there was a lot of deg yesterday. I'm sure that probably improves a little bit with as the track rubbers in here, but I have no idea what to expect tomorrow."