Lewis Hamilton eyes Miami rain chance after Ferrari qualifying progress

Lewis Hamilton is hoping Miami’s looming rain delivers an opportunity, after encouraging progress with Ferrari in qualifying.

Hamilton qualified sixth fastest at the Miami Autodrome on Saturday, his deficit to P1 reduced by two tenths of a second compared to SQ3 where he was seventh.

Lewis Hamilton targets wet Miami GP opportunity after qualifying gains

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The Ferrari driver was frustrated after Friday’s Sprint qualifying, where he was seven tenths down, saying he thought Ferrari, with its 11 upgrades, would be “stronger than we were”.

“I was hopeful coming in,” he added, “positive that we could be much higher, but not meant to be.”

Saturday’s qualifying for the grand prix went a little better, with Hamilton reducing his deficit to pole position to five tenths as he qualified P6.

“It was an improvement,” he told PlanetF1.com and other media. “We made lots of changes to the car, we didn’t have software issues. So I think we progressed. We stepped forward.

“I think Q2 was feeling really solid, and then when I got to Q3 just wasn’t able to extract the maximum.”

“I don’t feel comfortable in P6, it’s not where I want to be,” he added. “So quite unhappy with P6 naturally, but I’m happy that we’ve made changes.

“We progressed. We did improve. I think top three was probably possible.”

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Looking ahead to Sunday’s 57-lap Grand Prix, the drivers are preparing for a wet race.

Although the FIA and the Miami GP organisers have brought the race forward by three hours to avoid a late-afternoon thunderstorm, rain is still predicted when the race begins at 1pm [6pm UK].

Asked if he would prefer rain, the Briton replied: “Yeah, P6.”

He explained: “I think the rain will play a part. Yeah, rain would be the biggest part.

“I’m expecting tomorrow the car to feel a lot better, but it’s gonna be wet, so… I’m confident with the balance that I have today in wet, hopefully we should be in a good place.”

But while Hamilton is hoping for a wet race, the Briton stopped short of saying he was confident about his own performance in the wet after several days testing his SF-26 in the rain.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I don’t know who’s been in the wet. We’ll see tomorrow.

“I plan to go forward.”

Hamilton drove his 2026 Ferrari in the wet in Barcelona and again at Fiorano, and admitted it was not a pleasant experience with the Pirelli wet-weather tyres.

“It was pretty horrible in Barcelona, it was not a fun day,” he said. “It was very slippery, 350 kilowatts to put down, and yeah, wasn’t the most fun.

“But the wets are not usually that fun nowadays. Back in the day, when we had grippier tyres it was better.”

The Briton is happy that the FIA announced a change to the regulations in April.

The teams are now permitted to increase the temperature of the tyre blankets for the intermediate tyres “following driver feedback in order to improve initial grip and tyre performance in wet conditions.”

Hamilton said: “They’ve made a change to the blank attempts for the inters, that’s something I suggested and I pushed for. It was amazing, it was great to see them take a step.

“I’ve also said that they have to put the blankets back on the extreme wets, it’s the slipperiest of conditions, it’s horrible. And I had them put on in the test, and it was much better. So we all have blankets for tomorrow.”

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

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