Saudi Arabian Grand Prix: Lewis Hamilton describes his race as 'horrible'

Lewis Hamilton described his Saudi Arabian Grand Prix as "horrible" and said he had no explanation for his lack of pace in the Ferrari.

The seven-time champion finished seventh and was 31 seconds behind team-mate Charles Leclerc, who scored Ferrari's first grand prix podium of the season with third place.

"Nothing positive to take from today," Hamilton said, "apart from Charles on the podium, which is great for the team.

"It was horrible, not enjoyable at all. I was just sliding around. It's pretty bad."

He is seventh in the drivers' championship with his best result in a full grand prix this season his fifth place in Bahrain a week ago.

Hamilton said that he was "struggling to feel the car beneath me" but that there was "no particular thing, nothing to say: 'Hey, this is the issue.'"

And asked why he had been so good in the sprint race in China last month, where he won from pole position, and had struggled elsewhere, he said: "I don't have an answer."

Briton Hamilton, 40, said he expected to struggle at the next race in Miami, too, adding: "I don't know how much longer I'll struggle for but it's definitely painful. Just going to try and improve from week to week."

"At the moment there is no fix so this is how it's going to be for the rest or the year. It's going to be painful.

"In qualifying it's me extracting performance and in the race I tried everything and the car just didn't want to go any quicker."

Leclerc, by contrast, drove an outstanding race with a long first stint on the medium tyres to catch and pass Mercedes' George Russell for the final podium place.

He said: "I feel like we've maximised absolutely everything we could have this weekend. There wasn't anything more in the car.

"We need to focus on qualifying because it's been a very long time I haven't been as happy with the car balance.

"I feel very at ease with the car in a way that I know I can extract the maximum out of the car more often than not, but unfortunately, the car potential is just not good enough to fight for better in qualifying."

Ferrari just missed out on winning the constructors' championship last year and started this season hoping to compete for the title.

But McLaren and Red Bull have progressed more than the Italian team over the winter.

Leclerc said: "We are close on the race pace. Free air dictates a little bit who is going to win the race. That's always been the case. Maybe this year a little bit more than other years. And obviously when that is the case, qualifying is more important.

"But unfortunately, for two years, we are just struggling in qualifying to put everything together.

"The problem is it's not always the same issue. This time it was four tenths in the first three corners. For the rest of the lap, we were fast. And now today in the race, actually, the first sector was probably the best sector we had.

"So we've got to look at that. Obviously, there are answers in what we are doing, and we are doing something wrong, clearly. We've got to find it.

"We cannot lose too many races before finding it because we're already 50 points down in the drivers' championship.

"We're not looking at it too much, but 50 points is a big number. I don't want to be losing more points than that in the next few races."

It was Charles Leclerc's first time reaching the podium this season