Ferrari 'P-nowhere' with Hamilton 'devastated'

Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix

Venue: Imola Date: 18 May Race start: 14:00 BST on Sunday

Coverage: Live commentary on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra; live text updates on BBC Sport website and app

Ferrari are in "P-nowhere", according to Charles Leclerc, after he and Lewis Hamilton qualified 11th and 12th for their home Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix.

Leclerc was a second off the pace of the pole-setting McLaren of Oscar Piastri in front of the team's adoring 'tifosi'.

The Italian track is about 50 miles south-east of the Ferrari factory in Maranello.

"Very disappointed, especially at home at such a special grand prix for the team, it hurts. It would have hurt anyway at whatever track, but here it hurts even more," Leclerc said.

"I have no words about our performance today. The only thing we can say is that we are sorry for this kind of performance at home. We are just not good enough at the moment."

Hamilton, who was 0.161 seconds slower than his team-mate, said he felt the team had made "some really good progress" at Imola but admitted he was "devastated" by the car's performance.

"I feel gutted, I guess," he said. "Because the car was generally feeling really good.

"To be honest, I felt like the car, the set-up was just right. The brakes were working, everything was kind of in place. And we just can't go quicker.

"If you look at how quick Max (Verstappen's Red Bull) is going through Turn Two and Three, we just can't match it. And when we put that new soft (tyre) on at the end, for some reason it just didn't come alive, there was no extra grip."

It was the second race in succession in which Ferrari had failed to find time when fitting new tyres for their final runs in qualifying - the same happened in Miami two races ago.

Hamilton won the sprint race in China in March but Leclerc's third place in Saudi Arabia is Ferrari's only podium of the season so far.

Leclerc is fifth in the drivers' championship and Hamilton seventh, with the team fourth in the constructors' standings - 152 points behind leaders McLaren.

Hamilton acknowledged that time was running out on Ferrari's season but added that he saw his first season with the team as a "foundation-building year".

"We've got to start adding performance to this car clearly," Hamilton said. "We're not at the level, I mean look at Max's rear, it just doesn't move. He's doing like 6-10k faster through Turn Two than us and we can't match that.

"Same with McLarens, so we've just got to keep pushing, keep applying pressure. I believe the guys can find some performance.

"This is a foundation-building year and getting to grips with everything within the team, making changes that are needed in order to help the team navigate to success long term.

"That's stuff that I'm focused on in the background. There's a lot of improvements we can make across the board, as well as obviously building a faster car. I have all the faith and belief we can do that."