Hamilton draws painful conclussion: 'The car is good enough, I'm not'

"It was pretty straight forward," said Hamilton to media present in Bahrain including GPblog.

The seven-time world champion, often talkative, was suddenly giving out only short and dry responses. Whether the delay to put his lap in Q3 had proved to be crucial, Hamilton said: "It didn't help but it wasn't the worst, I guess [it's] not [the reason].

Ultimately the question needed to be asked: Is it the car? "I'm just not doing a good job on my side, so I've just got to keep improving." Seeing his teammate qualify in P3 Hamilton then acknowledged "Clearly the car is good enough."

Starting from P8, Hamilton then sets his hope for the race tomorrow. "Hopefully top 5. I'll try and see if I can get it to top 5, we'll see."

Pointing out that his early issues in the SF-25 had been resolved, he outlined his emotions after the session: "It's definitely not a good feeling for sure."