Lewis Hamilton has identified squandering a potential undercut on George Russell as a “missed opportunity” for Ferrari during the Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix.
Hamilton started the race 10th, owing to a grid penalty incurred at the previous race at Zandvoort, but his more confident demeanour started to translate on track.
After a good start, Hamilton was up to eighth and dispatched both Fernando Alonso and Gabriel Bortoleto for sixth place.
Ferrari opted for a long stint with Hamilton, which ended on Lap 38, when he made his one and only stop for Hard tyres.
Eventually, with others who he rejoined behind eventually coming in, Hamilton finished in sixth, just over five seconds behind former team-mate Russell at the chequered flag.
Speaking after the race, Hamilton spoke positively of the team’s performance, confirming his newfound confidence, but still admitted to a total affinity with the SF-25.
“I think overall our performance was fairly decent,” Hamilton told media including Motorsport Week.
“We obviously don’t have the pace of the cars much further ahead, so competing for the top three is off the cards for a while, but we keep pushing and trying to extract more.
“This weekend built a lot on my confidence with the car, [but] definitely I’m still not 100 per cent comfortable in the car.”
Hamilton felt fifth place was possible in Italian GP
Hamilton conceded that neither he nor team-mate Charles Leclerc – who finished fourth – had the pace to compete with McLaren and Red Bull, who locked out the podium.
But he believed that had he lined up alongside Leclerc in the order that the pair had qualified on Saturday, there was an opportunity to have made a better race at Monza.
“I’m sure we didn’t have the pace of the McLarens and the Red Bulls,” he reiterated.
“But I definitely think Charles and I, if we were together, we could have had a strong race in perhaps keeping up with, maybe trying to keep up more with the guys further ahead.
“I really don’t know. I just think they were just too fast, the guys further ahead, but I definitely think we would have been fifth, fourth.”
Hamilton revealed he had to lift off the throttle at the start of the race due to how good it was, and after freeing himself from Bortoleto, he was close to Russell.
There lies where he felt that the chance to get past the Mercedes was missed.
“I had a really good start – I had to lift just after because it was such a good start – and then I got kind of squeezed in between two cars,” he recalled.
“But other than that I positioned the car really nicely and I think made my way forwards, and I think I could have got fifth today.
“I think I was 1.5 seconds behind George; we should have tried to undercut him. But we missed that opportunity, then I was miles behind after that.”
READ MORE – Why McLaren decided against split strategies in F1 Italian GP
Discussion about this post