Lewis Hamilton hope extinguished after sudden Ferrari slump

Lewis Hamilton has described how his hopes of a strong Miami Grand Prix Sprint qualifying performance were extinguished. 

Ferrari delivered a field-high 11 upgrades to Miami, with Hamilton and team-mate Charles Leclerc looking strong in the sole practice session, with Leclerc topping the times, before the Monegasque topped SQ2 with Hamilton in third in the segment.

However, in SQ3, Leclerc fell to fourth, and Hamilton slipped to seventh, with the seven-time champion behind both cars from McLaren and Mercedes, respectively, Leclerc and Max Verstappen's Red Bull.

Detailing what had happened, Hamilton initially could not provide any immediate answers.

"We didn't really know what to expect," Hamilton explained of the feeling with the upgrades.

"I had hoped that we would be better, but the car did not feel particularly great. 

"I thought we would be stronger than we were, and we're going to do some work overnight to try and figure out why we're not that quick.

"I was hopeful, and came in positive that we could be much higher, but it was not meant to be."