‘I feel terrible for the team’ – Hamilton reacts to ‘devastating’ Sao Paulo retirement

Lewis Hamilton was left devastated as unmanageable damage to his Ferrari saw him retire midway through the Sao Paulo Grand Prix, adding that he felt "terrible" for the team.

The Briton had failed to make it into the top 10 in Saturday's tricky Qualifying session, leaving him to start the race from P13 on the grid while his team mate Charles Leclerc found himself up in third place.

On his mission to recover positions, Hamilton got a strong getaway at lights out, but had to back out of an overtake on Fernando Alonso heading into Turn 1. The first lap chaos then led to Carlos Sainz making contact with the Ferrari’s rear wheel and Hamilton subsequently reported that the “rear’s not stable”.

After then tapping the rear of Franco Colapinto’s Alpine, causing him to loose his front wing in the process, Ferrari confirmed over the radio that there was damage to the floor, which the seven-time World Champion attempted to manage for 38 laps before he was instructed to box and retire the car.

“After the hit, it felt like the rear suspension was broken, but they said that it seemed to be alright,” Hamilton explained afterwards. “But [there was] something, could be cross weight or something like that, and then there was the loss of downforce.

“I think we were losing 30 or 40 points of downforce so when you were going through the high speed, the thing was snapping. I was giving everything to try and keep up with the guys ahead of me.”

His difficulties were clearly visible as his car slid all over the track, and he previously warned his race engineer that he constantly felt as though he was on the verge of causing an accident.

With Leclerc also retiring due to damage caused by Oscar Piastri and Kimi Antonelli's coming together, Ferrari have now dropped 36 points behind Mercedes and four points behind Red Bull in the constructors’ standings with just three rounds remaining.

Hamilton added: “This is definitely a weekend to forget. It’s a shame because I love Brazil, and everyone in the team. Every single person in this team turns up every week and gives it their absolute best.

“To come away with nothing, to not finish a race for the second time in the year – it’s really devastating. I feel terrible for the team. I’m sorry for my part in Qualifying, putting myself in that position. We’ll get back up tomorrow and just give it another go.”