Lewis Hamilton has said he is not sure “exactly what went wrong” after missing out on the front-row for the 2026 Formula 1 Monaco Grand Prix.
Ferrari were being billed as the favourites for taking pole coming into the Monaco GP weekend.
The low-speed performance of the SF-26 was tipped to be the decisive factor in favor of the Maranello-based squad.
In fact, up until qualifying, the duo of Charles Leclerc and Hamilton were consistently in the top three – even locking out the front-row exclusively on Friday.
But come Q3, the pace mysteriously withered away. Andrea Kimi Antonelli bagged his fourth pole position of 2026 as Max Verstappen slotted his RB21 on the front-row.
Hamilton, is slated to start the race on Sunday from third on the grid, but called his qualifying effort a “step back” from his Friday form.
“We were looking really strong throughout the weekend and it’s always so much fun driving around this track,” he told media including Motorsport Week.
“I felt great in the car and I think we made progress yesterday. Then coming into today, we took a bit of a step back.
“We lost some performance overnight and then going into qualifying the car was really in a bad place.
“If you see Q1, I was seven tenths down or something like that and had to make huge adjustments to the wing in order to try and rebalance the car for some reason.”
Inexplicable balance issues ruined Lewis Hamilton’s F1 Monaco GP qualifying
The seven-time World Champion singled out the balance on the SF-26 as the single biggest deterrent to his chances on the streets of the Principality, on Saturday.
While he was able to salvage a result for the team, he explained how he was still at the end of his wits in understanding why the car started behaving the way it was.
“I’m not quite sure exactly what went wrong – we’ll deep dive into it,” Hamilton added.
“But I think ultimately we lost the chance to fight for the front row going into quali with the balance that we ended up with.
“So it was a bit of a surprise, but I’m still grateful.”
Notwithstanding, Hamilton insisted that he was happy with the effort he put in with the tools at his disposal.
“I got everything I could out of it at the end with the balance that I had,” asserted the 41-year-old.
“The car was on the edge, I was on the edge as much as I could be.”
Heading into the Grand Prix on Sunday, Hamilton would be hoping to convert his starting grid slot into a second consecutive podium for him in 2026.
READ MORE – Lewis Hamilton hopeful of Monaco F1 success despite ‘massive’ Mercedes deficit
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