Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc dejected as Ferrari form ‘falls away’ in US GP sprint qualifying

Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc qualified only eighth and tenth for the United States Grand Prix sprint race

Ferrari's Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc were left disappointed after sprint qualifying for the United States Grand Prix sprint race.

After qualifying in eighth for the sprint race at the Circuit of The Americas, Hamilton told Sky Sports F1, "That was definitely not the pace we're expecting."

When asked what had gone wrong for the Maranello outfit on the Friday, Hamilton added: "It was looking good in practice and SQ1 was looking pretty decent also, and then it just started to fall away from us. The car is very, very tough to drive. So yeah, it just fell away from us. I mean eight tenths is just... that's a mountain to climb."

Hamilton's team-mate Leclerc only managed to secure 10th place on the grid.

"[Ferrari lacked in pace] everywhere, honestly, my lap was clean in SQ3. I don't regret much what I've done in my lap," Leclerc said. "Maybe a little bit more mileage this morning on the medium. You can fine-tune the car a little bit better, there might be a tenth in that, a tenth and a half, I don't know, but it's not enough. I mean we are so far behind now."

The Monegasque driver found himself outpaced by both Williams drivers. with Carlos Sainz set to start in seventh and Alex Albon in ninth, and Sauber's Nico Hulkenberg, who will start the sprint race in fourth.

"I'll be very surprised if we find something that will make us such a jump, but I hope I'm wrong," Leclerc added.

Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari

Photo by: Simon Galloway / LAT Images via Getty Images

"But unfortunately for now, it just seems like it's the potential of our car. I'm very surprised by the teams that are very strong this weekend, apart from obviously the McLaren and the Red Bull, which is expected.

"But you've got Nico in front that has done probably an amazing lap, but he's been consistently fast this weekend so we just need to understand if they understood something that we didn't but today was a very poor day."

Four-time champion Max Verstappen secured pole position for the United States sprint race and will be joined on the front row by McLaren's Lando Norris. Oscar Piastri and Hulkenberg followed in third and fourth.