Lewis Hamilton explains where Ferrari ‘stumbled’ in Monza qualifying

Lewis Hamilton explained the confusion surrounding Ferrari’s close call in Q2 at the Italian Grand Prix, with both he and Charles Leclerc having scraped through to the top 10.

Hamilton made it through to Q3 by just 0.001s from Gabriel Bortoleto, with only Leclerc further ahead before the drivers qualified fourth and fifth at Monza, later being promoted a place each after Oscar Piastri was handed a three-place grid penalty.

Lewis Hamilton explains Ferrari’s Q2 confusion at Monza

Alpine driver Pierre Gasly shocked the field to take his first career pole position at the scene of his only Formula 1 victory to date from six years ago, with Ferrari having been contenders in practice.

Hamilton was confirmed to have had priority over where he wanted to sit in the on-track order at Ferrari this weekend, with both he and Leclerc taking turns on a week-by-week basis.

As Leclerc did not want to be the car at the front of the inevitable snake of drivers around Monza in Q2, with a slipstream critical for finding the best lap time, Ferrari played the waiting game for as long as it could – which very nearly backfired.

Hamilton’s relief was audible on team radio after making it through to Q3, but the chain of events led to a less-than-ideal session.

“I was really happy with the car,” Hamilton told PlanetF1.com and other media outlets after the session. “Didn’t change anything going into qualifying for like the first time ever and felt confident.

“Hit the first lap in Q1, I felt solid, and then waited to use that tyre again for Q2, and we’re supposed to do a push-cool-cool-push, but because everyone was waiting, and Charles didn’t want to go out first, we had to wait, wait, wait, and then everyone got one push, made it pretty challenging for us.

“Then my Q3, I didn’t have any wheels on the car basically, and everyone left whilst my engine was running. I went out 25 seconds behind and that just put me out of rhythm.

“When you’re following another car, when you’re in that tow, you arrive much faster, so the braking zones are different, and then when you’re on your own, you lose the tow. There’s a lot of time lost in the tow.”

Asked about how important teamwork is at Monza and how conversations were ahead of the weekend, the seven-time World Champion answered: “What I can say is, Pierre did a great job, but clearly, looking from a distance, it looked like they worked really well as a team.”

Ferrari had been right among the frontrunners through free practice but, when qualifying came around, the Scuderia had appeared slightly off the pace when it came to their rivals.

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With Monza often a waiting game in terms of how qualifying plays out, with every driver desperate for an aerodynamic tow, Hamilton admitted his team “stumbled” when it came to the key moments on Saturday.

“I don’t really fully understand why we were lacking so much pace at all,” he added, “because we should have had pace like we did in the first [session], but everyone just advanced forward.

“I think at the end, team was solely focused on trying to get an equal tow throughout the track and we just stumbled.”

With Piastri having been demoted on the grid, that means Ferrari will lock out the second row at its home race and, with championship leader Kimi Antonelli at the back of the field to begin with, both Hamilton and Leclerc have an opportunity to make inroads come Sunday.

“It’s definitely positive to progress,” Hamilton said of the Australian’s penalty. “Gives us a fighting chance hopefully with George [Russell], and then that’s one Mercedes up front, so hopefully that gives us a chance to work as a team to try and double up.”

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

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