Lewis Hamilton has expressed confidence that he could have secured a top-three result in qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix had it not been for a mistake on his final lap.
Hamilton has looked the more comfortable of the two Ferrari drivers throughout the Montreal weekend and again outpaced team-mate Charles Leclerc in qualifying.
However, Hamilton ultimately had to settle for fifth on the grid, while Leclerc could manage only eighth.
On his final Q3 run, Hamilton made an error on the exit of Turn 7 and chose to abandon the lap rather than complete an uncompetitive effort.
Despite the setback, the seven-time F1 champion praised the progress Ferrari has made over the course of the weekend and believes a place in the top three was within reach.
“It felt great,” Hamilton told the media, including ApexF1. “We made some good changes in qualifying.
“Oh man, I was hopeful for a better result, but didn’t get my last lap.
“The car was feeling like we were improving, and honestly, if I got the last lap, I probably could have been third.”
Ferrari appeared to be Mercedes’ closest challenger across the opening rounds of the campaign, but has since slipped back behind McLaren.
Hamilton stated Ferrari is still being held back by its deficit to the Mercedes power unit, but is hopeful it can get in the mix at some tracks if it can adopt more speed through the corners.
“The guys at the factory have done an amazing job with the car, and we still have improvements to make, but the car is fantastic,” Hamilton added to Sky F1.
“It’s just a battle of development through the season. We’ll see some people bring upgrades one weekend and others at another.
“We’re just at the mercy of the lack of power that we have, and I know that everyone worked really hard on the engine.
“The reliability is obviously very good. It’s just when you’re lacking that straight-line speed against the Merc, it’s very, very tough.
“But nonetheless, we have to expect that the rest of the season, that’s just the way it is. So we’ll just try and see if we can continue to add on to the car and try to close the gap.
“If we can go quicker through corners at some races, maybe we can get closer to challenging the front.”
