Sawt Falasteen - Hamilton felt he was in the fight for pole before exit

The seven-time champion had been fastest for Ferrari in Friday practice and was showing very competitive pace before his ambitions were thwarted after team-mate Charles Leclerc ran off ahead of him.

The Monegasque driver's excursion brought out yellow flags that effectively wrecked Hamilton's lap and, when he wanted to pit for a fresh set of tyres, Ferrari told him there was insufficient time and fuel.

"Honestly, I am so disappointed," Hamilton said. "Yesterday, the car was feeling good, but today there was a direction that we ended up going in which, on paper, looked like it was the best place to be.

"Our pace had been good, we were progressing and I was feeling really on it. I didn't make any mistakes, I didn't go down an exit road -- it was just that we didn't have the right tyre underneath us."

Hamilton blamed his early exit on being unable to use the medium tyres.

"Honestly, I thought I was going to be shooting for pole today and so it's come as a bit of a shock, but I'll take it on the chin and keep trying," he said.

He added that he did have a set of medium tyres saved and available but that his team "said that the warm-up was too long... so we ran out of time and out of fuel".

"So, not great... We will talk about it internally, but as I said, there have been lots of positives this weekend and I've really felt on it."

Hamilton ended up 12th on the grid for Sunday's race, two places behind team-mate Leclerc who crashed in the opening stages of Q3, ending his hopes of a fifth consecutive pole position.

"I think Lewis was a bit more on the pace straight away and more consistent than me," said Leclerc. "I've been struggling massively, which is not normal for me in Baku."

However, he did acknowledge that "it was very tricky in the conditions".

H.Darwish--SF-PST