"I am useless, absolutely useless," says seven-time world champion as he suggests it's time for Ferrari to find another driver.

For the third successive race weekend the Briton had failed to make it into Q3, however this time his situation was all the worse because teammate Charles Leclerc had claimed pole, Ferrari's first of the year.

Nobody, even Leclerc expected anyone other than a McLaren to be on the coveted position for tomorrow's race, but a stunning lap at a time the track was constantly evolving, traffic was proving an issue and mistakes were being made left, right and centre, proved crucial.

However, Hamilton, who had been looking good in all three practice sessions, admittedly a little way off his teammate's pace, missed getting through to the final phase by 15 thousandths of a second.

"Clearly a massively disappointing day," he said at session end, "being on the wrong side of a tenth cost me.

"Congratulations to Charles and the team," he added. "It shows what can happen when things align. I've got a lot of work to do and will remain focused on that."

However, speaking to Sky Sports the Briton was highly critical of himself. At the end of Q2, when told he had missed the cut, he said: "Every time, every time", asked to explain what he meant, the Briton replied: "It's just me every time.

"I am useless, absolutely useless," he added.

Advised that the Maranello outfit is working hard to give him a car more suited to his style of driving, he said: "The team has no problem, you can see the car is on pole. They probably need to change driver."

"Conditions were changing massively, with even some rain in Q2," explained Fred Vasseur. "Then in the end, Charles found the way to put the tyres in the right window and the correct spot on the out lap.

"It was a mega lap and it's a very positive performance seeing that the delta between P10 and P1 is so small.

"Lewis was very close to Charles," he continued, "and failed to make the cut but just 15 thousandths of a second. He will definitely have a tough time in the race."

It's rare to see Hamilton so down, certainly publicly, and contrasts with his buoyant mood at the start of the weekend.

"I love being in red," he told reporters. "I love working with this team. I have such belief in this team. It's really hard to explain, but I already had it a lot when I was in my previous team. Like over the time, you really build that camaraderie, and I see the passion in this team, and oh man, I love it. It's like all I want to do is contribute the best I can."

However, even then the seven-time champ admitted that the first half of the season has been tough.

"This one's definitely been the most intense one, I would say, just from a work perspective, integrating into a new culture and into a new team," he said. "It's not gone smoothly in all areas, it's been a real battle."

The Briton admitted that he was looking forward to the upcoming break.

"My spirit," he said, "I definitely need to get away and recharge, be around the kids, laugh, let go.

"I'm sure there'll be some tears at some point," he admitted, "and I think that's really healthy."

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