Lewis Hamilton's ONE-word response to Qatar GP disaster

Three images of Hamilton with a green, red and lighter overlay with a white background — Photo: © IMAGO

Formula 1

Lewis Hamilton's ONE-word response to Qatar GP disaster

Lewis Hamilton endured a nightmare weekend

By Sheona Mountford.

Monday 1 December 2025 03:08

Lewis Hamilton issued a painful one-word response to his double Q1 exit at the F1 Qatar Grand Prix.

Qatar marked another miserable weekend for Hamilton, who was knocked out in SQ1 during sprint qualifying and also in Q1 during main race qualifying.

Hamilton opted for a pit lane start to trial setup changes for Saturday's sprint, but was unable to progress any further than P17 and finished well outside of the points.

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Main race qualifying on Saturday was a chance for Hamilton to banish the demons which had plagued him on Friday, but was once again kicked out of Q1 and only set the 18th fastest time.

The Brit was a man of few words to Sky Sports' Rachel Brookes on Friday, claiming the only positive was 'the weather', and speaking to the media after qualifying Hamilton had even fewer words to say.

Hamilton only had one word in response to the question, and said: "Yup."

Hamilton's Qatar GP nightmare

In his interview with Sky Sports F1, Hamilton was marginally more chatty and described his feeling in the car to Brookes.

"The car felt a lot better, it just didn't reflect that in the times," he said.

"The car felt good. Honestly, the car felt a lot better than it was in the rest of the weekend. We were looking ok and then we just didn't get the last lap."

While Charles Leclerc made Q3 on both qualifying occasions in Qatar, Hamilton's Ferrari team-mate has suffered equally as much as the champion.

Keeping his SF-25 straight and on the track during qualifying was a challenge for Leclerc, where he suffered a big spin at the high-speed Turn 15, pirouetting his Ferrari twice but managing to remain in the session.

Leclerc finished Saturday's sprint race outside of the points in P13, and could only acquire a grid slot of P10 - below Pierre Gasly, Fernando Alonso and Carlos Sainz - for Sunday's Qatar GP.

Speaking after qualifying, Leclerc was equally as miserable as Hamilton, and added: "I agree with Lewis' feeling.

"The car feels quite ok, it doesn't feel that much off the pace, but when you look at the timings we are very, very, very far.

"It's just the performance of the car at the moment, we are not where we want to be. I changed quite a bit on the car since yesterday but I couldn't extract any more."

F1 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari Qatar Grand Prix