Lewis Hamilton’s fresh tyre request rejected by Ferrari in shock Baku Q2 exit

Lewis Hamilton blamed Ferrari’s decision not to put him on fresh tyres for his Q2 exit at the 2025 F1 Azerbaijan Grand Prix.

Hamilton was eliminated early in a chaotic qualifying session at the Baku City Circuit.

Qualifying was disrupted by six red flag stoppages due to various incidents.

Unlike teammate Charles Leclerc, who ran on a fresh set of mediums at the end of Q2, Hamilton was running on old softs.

While Hamilton improved on his final effort, it wasn’t enough to make it into Q3.

Speaking to Sky Sports after qualifying, Hamilton revealed that Ferrari denied his request to put fresh tyres on.

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

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

“Everyone ahead of me basically had the medium tyre on and I lost a medium tyre in P2 due to run-time schedules and that put me on the back foot.

“Yeah [I did], but the choice wasn’t taken to use it.

“I wanted to do but they said that the warm-up was too long or something like that so we ran out of time and out of fuel, so not great.”

Hamilton: Q2 exit “a bit of a shock”

Up until qualifying, Lewis Hamilton and Ferrari had shown better pace.

The seven-time world champion set the pace in FP2 ahead of teammate Leclerc.

In final practice, Hamilton was inside the top four, continuing his respectable form over one lap since the summer break.

Hamilton conceded that he thought he’d be “shooting for pole” so his early exit was a “shock”.

“We will take it internal and as I said there has been lots of positives this weekend and I’ve really felt on it,” Hamilton added.

“I honestly thought I was going to be shooting for pole today and so it’s come as a bit of a shock. I will take it on the chin and keep trying.”

Leclerc also endured a disappointing qualifying session.

The four-time Azerbaijan GP pole-sitter locked up and crashed out at Turn 16 in Q3.

Leclerc won’t start Sunday’s race higher than 10th on the grid.