Lewis Hamilton offers 'crazy' Ferrari explanation after USGP podium miss

Lewis Hamilton has offered a "crazy" explanation for missing out on a podium at the United States Grand Prix, revealing that Ferrari spent much of the weekend chasing the wrong set-up before correcting course too late to catch Max Verstappen for third place.

The seven-time world champion finished fourth at the Circuit of the Americas, 18.515 seconds behind race winner Kimi Antonelli, with Charles Leclerc taking second and Verstappen completing the podium in third.

Hamilton said his struggles traced back to Friday, when Ferrari ran the wrong set-up in FP1 before heading further off course in FP2.

"I think I was lacking pace in the first two stints," Hamilton told select media, including RacingNews365. "Basically, I just couldn't turn the car, and I think ultimately it all kind of started on Friday. 

"Wrong set-up, really, for FP1, and then went the wrong direction in FP2. Reverted back and got to a better place for FP3. But there's a subtle difference between Charles and me and our car, basically just in the race, and it's just to do mostly with flap, how much wing you put in, and I think we've just been under-hitting it, continuously under-hitting it for some reason. 

"When you do the lap to the grid, it feels like the car is good, and then as soon as the race starts, massive washout and understeer, and I couldn't do anything about it, so they just pulled away. I lost those eight seconds, and that's really why I didn't get that position [on Verstappen] in the end."

Lewis Hamilton reveals constant Ferrari pit stop adjustments

By FP3, Hamilton had begun converging towards the same direction as Leclerc's car, but the pair still started the race on noticeably different wing levels. 

Hamilton went into Sunday's race with less front wing than his teammate, leaving him short of the load Leclerc had already built up through a long run completed in FP2.

That gap forced Ferrari into reactive adjustments throughout the afternoon, with Hamilton needing repeated flap changes at his pit stops just to bring the balance closer to where Leclerc's car had started.

Asked how he became so quick by the end of the race, Hamilton explained the scale of the correction required.

"Because through the pit stops, I added four clicks," began explaining Hamilton. "The next pit stop added another four clicks, and even then, I'm still another four clicks too short. And it's crazy, like, to be 12 clicks down. We really need to look at how we get to that point. 

"But I think it would have been a bit different if we had started with it. I think in FP2, where we did the long run, that's where Charles got the experience on that set-up, and I didn't get the long run on it. So, a bit of a back step on it. Lots of positives to take. 

"The team did a really great job with pit stops and the strategy, and we obviously had decent pace today, particularly the last stint. If I had that in the first two, we would have for sure been on the podium, I think."