Lewis Hamilton admits Ferrari made major change to his car after dismal qualifying session at Japanese Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton has revealed Ferrari made a major change to his car after his disappointing qualifying session at the Japanese Grand Prix.

On Saturday morning, Max Verstappen stunned the entire paddock as he dragged the problematic Red Bull RB21 to pole position.

The Dutchman aced his final sector to beat McLaren star Lando Norris by 0.012 seconds. Oscar Piastri will start from third on the grid.

However, it was a day to forget for seven-time world champion Hamilton, who only managed to qualify in eighth place, with teammate Charles Leclerc fourth.

Speaking after the session, Hamilton admitted that a major change was made to his Ferrari on the back of his disqualification from the Chinese Grand Prix.

The Brit was axed from the results after the race due to excessive skid wear.

As a result, the 40-year-old ride height has been raised this weekend.

Hamilton said: "We are running higher than we would like, but I don’t know if everyone else the same boat in that respect.

"Particularly obviously after the last race, we’re a bit higher than we want to be. It’s usually the knock-on effect from a weekend like we had before."

He continued: "Charles did an amazing lap today. For me, we went in different directions with the setup. I had a lot of understeer and couldn’t dial it out throughout qualifying.

"Obviously not good enough from my side, P8 is not great. I was happy to get into Q3, really tight battle out there with everyone. I just didn’t get great laps in Q3."

Ahead of the race, it has been said that there is a 40% chance of rain, which Hamilton is looking forward to.

He added: "I’m excited, I love I generally love the rain. It’s going to be tricky, but usually when you have a qualifying like I’ve just had, you hope for rain. So I hope that it stays."

Reacting to Hamilton's ride height change, 1997 F1 champion Jacques Villeneuve explained: "It makes the car difficult to drive. I mean, Charles Leclerc managed to get a lap in, Lewis made some mistakes.

"But it puts the car in a window where they get in and out of that aero window just a little bit too high. When they hit that edge, they get out and it makes the car difficult to drive."