Lewis Hamilton's one-word reaction to his below par deficit after his push lap

Lewis Hamilton shared a downbeat one-word reaction after his race engineer told him about the big deficits he had to the fastest car in the FP3 session for the Saudi Arabian GP on Saturday. The Briton ended the final practice session of the weekend down in P12, a whole 1.2 seconds down on Lando Norris in P1.

Lewis Hamilton seemed to struggle yet again with his Ferrari during the FP3 session on Saturday afternoon at Jeddah, as the 40-year-old told his team that he had a lack of grip during the session. He was over 4 tenths behind his teammate, Charles Leclerc, who finished the session in P5.

After aborting a push lap on the soft tires towards the end of the session, Hamilton came over the radio to ask his team about the deficit he had to the quickest car on track. His race engineer, Riccardo Adami, gave him the news.

"How far down am I on the sectors?" asked Hamilton.

"7 tenths first sector. 4 tenths second sector. And we aborted the last sector," replied Adami.

In reaction to this, Hamilton gave a damning one-word reaction:

"Jeez"

Hamilton has looked off the pace throughout the race weekend so far, having also struggled to find the right balance and grip in his SF25 car even during the practice sessions on Friday. A seven tenths deficit in just the first sector to Norris is another discouraging setback for the 7x world champion.

While his teammate Leclerc has looked quicker than him all weekend, the Monegasque was still over 8 tenths slower than Norris at the end of the FP3 session. This seemed to be the story for all other teams as well, as the closest car to the McLarens in the afternoon session was George Russell's Mercedes, which was still over 6 tenths behind.

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Lewis Hamilton claimed he was simply aiming to get his Ferrari into the top 10 on Saturday

Lewis Hamilton at the Grand Prix of Saudi Arabia - Practice - Source: Getty

Speaking after an underwhelming Friday at the Saudi Arabian GP, Lewis Hamilton told members of the media that all he was looking to do on Saturday was try and get into the P10. The Briton finished the FP3 session on Saturday in a lowly P12 ahead of the qualifying session.

Speaking to Formula1.com on Friday, Hamilton cut a disappointed figure, sharing his aim for Saturday:

"I don’t know. For me, I’m just seeing if I can get in the top 10 at the moment."

While he set a low target for himself on Saturday, Hamilton has failed to achieve this feat in the FP3 session, as he finished P12. It would need to be a quick turnaround for the Ferrari team if Hamilton is to compete with his teammate during qualifying, having looked well behind Leclerc up until this point during the weekend.