Lewis Hamilton labelled his first campaign with Ferrari “a nightmare” following a torrid Sao Paulo Grand Prix that capped a weekend to forget. Knocked out in SQ2 on Friday and again in Q2 on Saturday, the seven-time champion started 13th, then tangled with Carlos Sainz at Turn 1 before rear-ending Alpine’s Franco Colapinto on the main straight. With heavy floor damage and a five-second penalty for the Colapinto contact, Ferrari retired him on lap 39.
Qualifying woes and lap-one chaos set the tone
Hamilton failed to reach the final phase of both Sprint Qualifying and Grand Prix Qualifying at Interlagos, leaving him mired in the pack. The opening-corner brush with team-mate Sainz dropped him further back, and the subsequent hit on Colapinto compounded the damage and the deficit. It marked just his second retirement of 2025.
‘Dream vs nightmare’ as podium drought continues
Sitting a lonely sixth in the Drivers’ Championship and still without a Ferrari podium, Hamilton summed up the emotional whiplash: the “dream” of racing in red versus the “nightmare” of the results. He called the ups and downs “challenging” and admitted the team must regroup quickly after Brazil to arrest the slide.
