Lewis Hamilton let his feelings known after a disappointing end to his US GP qualifying session. The Ferrari driver, who believed he could do better, ended up in P5, while his teammate, Charles Leclerc, managed P3.
Ferrari has not been a team with a strong qualifying performance, and it reflected at the Circuit of The Americas once again. Out of 19 races, only once (Leclerc) a Ferrari driver was able to be on pole.
As Hamilton arrived to speak about his qualifying session, he touched upon his struggles with the understeer, balance, and issues with the tires. Speaking to Sky Sports, here's what the seven-time world champion said:
“I was struggling with the balance. From the get go I had massive understeer, so I came in and put two holes of wing in, went out, came in, put two holes of wing in... just kept adding and adding. I think in the end I added like eight holes of front wing today."
"With that understeer, it made [the session] really difficult and saturated the fronts. The last lap was closer to the balance that I was looking for but if I took that back to Q1, it would have been the car that I needed earlier on to then build from there," he further added.
Max Verstappen of Red Bull claimed the pole as he denied his Championship rival, Lando Norris, by nearly three-tenths of a second. George Russell of Mercedes starts Sunday's race between Leclerc and Hamilton.
Lewis Hamilton frustrated with pace after Sprint qualifying on Friday
Ahead of Saturday's qualifying, Lewis Hamilton was far from impressed with Ferrari's pace at the Sprint qualifying. Sharing his disappointment, here's what the British driver said:

"It was looking good in practice, and [S]Q1 was looking pretty decent also. And then, it just started to fall away from us. The car is very, very tough to drive. Yeah, it just fell away from us. I mean, eight-tenths, that’s a mountain to climb.” (via Sky Sports)
Lewis Hamilton finished the Sprint in P4, ahead of his teammate, Charles Leclerc. After 18 races and four sprints, he is in P6 of the Drivers' Championship with 130 points.
His teammate, Charles Leclerc, is in P5 with 177 points. Ferrari are in P3 of the Constructors' Championship with 307 points.