Lewis Hamilton blames tire choice after a disastrous qualifying session in the F1 Azerbaijan GP

Lewis Hamilton opened up about his Q2 exit from the Azerbaijan GP and stated that the wrong set-up in his car cost him time. Speaking to the media after his session was over, a disappointed Hamilton informed that the tire choice was incorrect, and as a result, it cost him a spot in Q1.

Hamilton qualified in P12 for Sunday's race at the Baku City Circuit. He will line up ahead of Gabriel Bortoleto of Kick Sauber and behind Fernando Alonso of Aston Martin. The British driver tried to give it one last go, nearing the end of Q2, but the attempt turned out too slow to see him through to the next round of qualifying.

The Briton registered 1:42.183 on the timesheet, which was nearly four-tenths slower than Yuki Tsunoda of Red Bull, the driver in P10 in Q2. As a result, Hamilton faced yet another exit from the second round of qualifying. As the Ferrari star was out, he shared his thoughts with the media:

"I'm really disappointed," Hamilton said after the race. "Yesterday the car was quite good, today we went for a setup that looked right on paper... But we didn't have the right tire, everyone ahead of us was racing with new tires."

Notably, Lewis Hamilton tried his final flying lap in Q2 in softs, and according to him, it was not the right choice of tires under the given circumstances. On the other hand, his teammate, Charles Leclerc, who crashed out of the qualifying, also had a day to forget.

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Lewis Hamilton's teammate, Charles Leclerc ended his day in crash

Lewis Hamilton's teammate, Charles Leclerc, also had a disastrous outing as the Monegasque driver ended up on the wall. During his flying lap in Q3, Leclerc lost control of his car, locked up, and ended up on the barrier, bringing in a red flag.

Marshals remove the damaged car of Charles Leclerc of Monaco and Scuderia Ferrari from the circuit during qualifying ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Azerbaijan - Source: Getty

"I have struggled massively throughout the weekend which is not the case before in Baku," Leclerc said after the qualifying session. "Changed massively for Qualifying and the feeling got better but as soon as we have put Mediums it was very very difficult to put the tyres into the right temperatures."

The Ferrari drivers, Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton, will line up on P10 and P12 for Sunday's race. Max Verstappen of Red Bull claimed the pole ahead of Williams' Carlos Sainz.