Lewis Hamilton believes Ferrari's deficit to United States Grand Prix Sprint pole position shows the team has "a mountain to climb."
Hamilton will be the lead works Ferrari on the grid in Austin, taking eighth place, but was 0.892s slower than pole-sitter Max Verstappen, with the SF-25's best effort being a 1:33.035 compared to Verstappen's 1:32.143.
To rub further salt into the Ferrari wounds, customer team Stake will start fourth through a stunning Nico Hulkenberg lap, which was 0.390s faster than the works team.
Hamilton's team-mate Charles Leclerc was an equally disgruntled 10th on the grid, as the seven-time champion explained how the session had got away from Ferrari.
"It was definitely not the pace we were expecting," a dejected Hamilton explained.
"I really don't know [where the pace went], it was looking good in practice and SQ1 was looking pretty decent also.
'But then it just started to fall away from us, and the car is very, very tough to drive, so yeah, it just fell away from us.
"I mean, eight-tenths [from pole] is just a mountain to climb."
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