'I'm just not doing the job' – Hamilton apologetic after poor qualifying

Hamilton will start from ninth on the grid after enduring another frustrating day in Saturday's qualifying session.

He finished six places and six-tenths of a second behind team-mate Charles Leclerc, though the Monegasque will start from second after Mercedes' George Russell received a one-place grid penalty.

Hamilton has endured a largely underwhelming start to his first season with Ferrari. He claimed his first victory in the Chinese Grand Prix sprint, but his best finish in a full-length race was seventh last weekend in Japan.

And the seven-time world champion did not hold back in his self-criticism.

"It's just about my performance, poor performance," he told Sky Sports F1.

"There's no reasons. [I'm] just not doing the job. It happens every Saturday."

Speaking to Sky Italy, he added: "I'm just really sorry to all the team back at the factory, really sorry."

Hamilton has the most wins in Bahrain (five) as well as the most podiums (11), but he admitted his confidence was low as he was not sure how to resolve his current situation.

"I'm just not doing a good enough job on my side, so I've just got to keep improving," he said.

"It's definitely not a good feeling, for sure. I really don't know [how to improve the situation]. I don't have a lot of answers, I just wasn't quick."

Ready to make moves tomorrow pic.twitter.com/SKXqrwHuvs

— Scuderia Ferrari HP (@ScuderiaFerrari) April 12, 2025

Meanwhile, Max Verstappen, who won with an outstanding performance at Suzuka last week, also toiled in qualifying, finishing seventh.

Verstappen, who claimed a fourth consecutive title last season, admitted he was having issues with his car in Sakhir and was pessimistic about his chances of winning a fifth championship this year.

"It was tough all weekend," Verstappen said. "For whatever reason, I have been struggling with the brakes, the feeling also.

"It is something we need to investigate – and general grip throughout the lap. Quite inconsistent, and that makes it very hard to understand what you need from the car when, for whatever reason, we can't seem to make the tyres work.

"If you look at the gap to McLaren, I'm not surprised. I already told the team during the winter test here that the gap is half a second, and that proves to be the case, so I was right in that respect. If you look at the entire season, I don't think we ever really had a chance.