Another race, another downbeat interview from Lewis Hamilton, who says Ferrari “won’t” find answers for his pace at the Spanish Grand Prix as it was “probably just me”.

Hamilton had a mixed weekend at the Spanish Grand Prix as he walked away from Friday’s practice claiming there was an issue with his SF-25.

Lewis Hamilton: It’s just, it’s probably just me

On the radio to his race engineer on Friday, he told Riccardo Adami: “That was bad.” He then told the Italian: “That car is not drivable, mate.”

Declaring it was a “bad day”, he revealed: “We had some problem which meant we were losing some downforce so hopefully with that fixed for tomorrow, we’ll be in a better place.”

And he was on Saturday.

Hamilton beat his team-mate Charles Leclerc for only the second time in nine Grand Prix qualifying sessions, fifth fastest on Saturday afternoon and a tenth up on Leclerc.

The seven-time World Champion was in a better frame of mind, saying:” P5 in qualy shows the progress we’ve made. The car felt good, so I’m going all in tomorrow, aiming for a podium finish.”

Ferrari did achieve a podium result, but it belonged to Leclerc.

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The Monegasque driver had the better pace in the Grand Prix as he was all over Hamilton’s rear wing in the early laps before the team-mates swapped positions, and Leclerc scampered off into the distance.

He took the chequered flag in third place, taking advantage of a late Safety Car to attack Max Verstappen, with Hamilton dropping to sixth on the final lap as he was overtaken by the Sauber of Nico Hulkenberg.

Told of his finishing position by Adami, Hamilton replied: “Unbelieve guys. There’s something wrong with this car, mate. It’s the worst it’s ever been.”

He was asked by Sky F1 how it felt and what he had been doing to deal with it.

“Not particularly,” he said. “It was just not a great day.

“Strategy was good, team did a great job. Just…” he ended with a rueful shake of his head.

Told that it is ‘hard to see’ him in ‘this’ mood, he replied: “What do you want me to say?

“I just had a really bad day, and I’ve got nothing to say.

“It was a difficult day, there’s nothing else to add to it, it was terrible.

“There’s no point explaining it. It’s not your fault, I just don’t know what else to say.”

Put him that Ferrari could find answers, he responded: “I’m sure they won’t. It’s just, it’s probably just me.”

Fred Vasseur, though, denied this.

Speaking to the media including PlanetF1.com, the Ferrari team principal confirmed there was actually an issue with Hamilton’s car that hampered him in the final stint. And that, he says, is why the Briton lost out to George Russell and Hulkenberg.

He, however, did reveal what exactly the issue was.

“You are experienced enough to draw a conclusion after the first words of the driver,” he said.

“If you want to create a polemic, you can. But it’s not the case. I think he did 70 per cent of the race in front of Russell. I’m not sure that Russell said that the race was a disaster.

“But then we had an issue on the car the last stint, before the Safety Car. The result is not good, but he did 45 laps in front of Russell.”

Hamilton remained P6 in the Drivers’ Championship but now trails Leclerc by 23 points. He is 115 down on championship leader Oscar Piastri.

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