Lewis Hamilton has admitted that he thought Ferrari \u201cwould be stronger\u201d in Sprint Qualifying at the Miami Grand Prix, with the Briton ending the session in P7 while team mate Charles Leclerc had to settle for P5 despite earlier setting the pace.<\/p>\n
Things had initially appeared promising for the Scuderia \u2013 one of several teams to bring significant upgrade packages this weekend \u2013 as the action got underway in Miami, Leclerc<\/a> having topped the timesheets in Friday\u2019s sole practice session.<\/p>\n The Monegasque again went quickest during the SQ2 segment of Sprint Qualifying<\/a>, but both Ferraris<\/a> were outpaced in the top 10 shootout by rivals including McLaren<\/a>, with Lando Norris<\/a> claiming pole position for Saturday\u2019s Sprint.<\/p>\n Reflecting on whether he had felt that the SF-26 was performing as expected during the session, Hamilton<\/a> said afterwards: \u201cWe didn\u2019t really know what to expect. I had hoped that we would be better, but the car didn\u2019t feel particularly great.\u201d<\/p>\n The seven-time World Champion went on to say that he had \u201cno idea\u201d if the team\u2019s new package would perform better at other tracks, adding: \u201cI thought we would be stronger than we were today.<\/p>\n \u201cWe\u2019ve got to do some work overnight to try and figure out why we\u2019re not that quick. I was hopeful coming in, positive that we could be much higher, but not meant to be.\u201d<\/p>\n Leclerc also conceded that Ferrari have progress to make when it comes to Qualifying form, with the eight-time race winner explaining the areas where the team have been struggling.<\/p>\n