{"id":36500,"date":"2025-08-02T12:03:28","date_gmt":"2025-08-02T16:03:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/?p=36500"},"modified":"2025-08-02T12:03:28","modified_gmt":"2025-08-02T16:03:28","slug":"lewis-hamilton-devastated-after-hungary-qualifying-im-useless","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/2025\/08\/02\/lewis-hamilton-devastated-after-hungary-qualifying-im-useless\/","title":{"rendered":"Lewis Hamilton devastated after Hungary qualifying: “I’m useless”"},"content":{"rendered":"

There were very contrasting fortunes in the Ferrari garage today in qualifying. Whilst Charles Leclerc secured a special Pole Position, Lewis Hamilton<\/a> was eliminated in Q2.<\/p>\n

The 7-time Champion gave a series of extremely self-critical comments when he spoke to the media post-session.<\/p>\n

Lewis Hamilton lost for words after Q2 exit in Hungary<\/h2>\n

In contrast to the majority of his Mercedes<\/a> career, Hamilton spent most of last season frustrated with his package.<\/p>\n

A lack of confidence in the W15 characterised his season – proving especially costly for his performances on Saturdays.<\/p>\n

However, even his lowest moments in 2024 do not compare with his statements after qualifying 12th today.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Over the course of 2025, the British driver has worked to acclimatise to his new team and package at Ferrari.<\/p>\n

There have been some encouraging signs, with his impressive recovery last weekend in Belgium one of his more positive exploits in red.<\/p>\n

Despite this, Hamilton has often been unable to replicate the efforts of teammate Charles Leclerc<\/a> in qualifying, who leads their 2025 head-to-head 10-4.<\/p>\n

Today marked a low point for the 40-year-old, who was knocked out of Q2 and starts 12th, on the same day Leclerc secured Pole Position.<\/p>\n

At a track where the Ferrari driver has enjoyed immense success, he was visibly distraught speaking to Sky Sports:<\/p>\n

“It’s me every time. I’m useless – absolutely useless.<\/em><\/p>\n

“The team has no problem, you can see the car is on Pole.<\/em><\/p>\n

“They probably need to change driver,”<\/em> a dejected Hamilton concluded.<\/p>\n

Ferrari, like most teams, have brought their final significant<\/a> upgrade packages of 2025 during the last two weeks.<\/p>\n

This means, aside from changes to set-up, there will be no drastic changes coming to the SF-25.<\/p>\n

For Lewis Hamilton, this means the need to adapt and overcome his first Ferrari challenger is paramount.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Leclerc: Conditions were very challenging in qualifying<\/h4>\n

For Charles Leclerc, today’s Pole Position – the teams\u00a0 first of the season – understandably came as a huge surprise.<\/p>\n

The 27-year-old admitted the SF-25 was a handful to manage in qualifying, despite setting the fastest time:<\/p>\n

“The whole qualifying has been extremely difficult – and when I say that, I’m not exaggerating.<\/em><\/p>\n

“It was super difficult for us to get into Q2 and Q3. <\/em><\/p>\n

“In Q3, he conditions changed a little bit – and everything became a lot trickier, and I knew I had to just do a clean lap to target third.<\/em><\/p>\n

“At the end of the day, it’s Pole Position – and I definitely did not expect that.”<\/em><\/p>\n

Leclerc’s comments summarise the tricky nature of track conditions at the Hungaroring.<\/p>\n

With a spell of rain in Q2 impacting already limited grip levels, there was little margin for error in qualifying.<\/p>\n

Hamilton was not the only surprise casualty, with Kimi Antonelli also falling in Q2 – while Yuki Tsunoda<\/a> was among the first five eliminations, despite being just a tenth behind teammate Verstappen.<\/p>\n

With the likes of Aston Martin<\/a> bringing updates, there is nowhere to hide for even the front-running teams.<\/p>\n

As exposed today (and previously in Belgium) poor performances on Saturday will be punished by an increasingly dangerous midfield.<\/p>\n

For Leclerc, a strong start tomorrow could be the key to converting Pole Position into victory.<\/p>\n

The equation is slightly different for Hamilton, of course, whose Sunday will largely consist of damage limitation.<\/p>\n

Main photo: via Scuderia Ferrari media gallery<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

There were very contrasting fortunes in the Ferrari garage today in qualifying. Whilst Charles Leclerc secured a special Pole Position, Lewis Hamilton was eliminated in Q2. The 7-time Champion gave a series of extremely self-critical comments when he spoke to the media post-session. Lewis Hamilton lost for words after Q2 exit in Hungary In contrast […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4927,"featured_media":36503,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_lmt_disableupdate":"","_lmt_disable":"","sfio_featured_image":false,"sfio_embed_code":"","_ef_editorial_meta_date_first-draft-date":"","_ef_editorial_meta_paragraph_assignment":"","_ef_editorial_meta_checkbox_needs-photo":"","_ef_editorial_meta_number_word-count":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[2452,84,721,2481],"class_list":["post-36500","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-formula-1","category-news","tag-f1-2025-season","tag-ferrari","tag-hamilton","tag-sf-25"],"modified_by":"Jaden Diaz-Ndisang","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36500","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4927"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36500"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36500\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":36504,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/36500\/revisions\/36504"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/36503"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36500"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=36500"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lastwordonsports.com\/motorsports\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=36500"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}