Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc were again left questioning Ferrari’s ability after a near Q2 exit at the Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix, where they slipped through by just 0.008s. Both were left exasperated and have repeatedly pointed to Ferrari’s execution over Grand Prix weekends as the team’s main area for improvement.
Hamilton shared his thoughts with Sky Sports post-qualifying, stating, “It was definitely very, very tough.”
“The car felt really good in practice, and then in qualifying I didn’t change anything, so I felt good going into Q1, and Q1 was solid.
“And then we sat and waited a very long time in the pit lane for the first run of Q2 and, for some reason, we just didn’t have the pace. I’m not really sure why, whether it was tyre pressures, tyre temperature, whatever, so we need to look into that.
“Then the execution in Q3 was pretty bad, obviously. I ended up out in the middle of nowhere with nobody, and then, when you’re following another car, you arrive faster, several kilometres faster into a corner, so the braking distances adjust.
“It’s all about getting into a rhythm, and I got really out of rhythm for Q3 run one, and then Q3 run two was – it wasn’t a terrible lap, but, as I said, references were all different, and we just ultimately didn’t maximise it.”
Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc admit frustrations
The seven-time world champion and Leclerc will benefit from the post-session penalty for Oscar Piastri, who was judged to have impeded Liam Lawson during Q2, meaning that Hamilton moves up to fourth place, one position behind his teammate.
While Hamilton survived a narrow escape by a margin of 0.001s in Q2, Leclerc had been similarly close to the drop, surviving by 0.008s, with Audi driver Gabriel Bortoleto on the tear.
“It’s been a big struggle, especially when we arrived in Q2,” said Leclerc.
“We were nearly out with both cars, but to be honest, we’ve had many issues in the background that we had to deal with.
“I’m pretty sure that if we speak in the paddock, everybody had some issues because it’s one of the most difficult tracks to optimise the power unit on, but that’s not an excuse.”
Lauding first-time polesitter Pierre Gasly, he added: “Pierre and Alpine did everything perfectly, and I think they surprised everybody in the paddock by doing a perfect job. I’m very happy for Pierre, by the way, but now it’s our job to try and recover what we kind of lost on our own today.
“I don’t think pole position was possible, but one place better was probably doable, and we need to target maximising everything, and today we didn’t.”
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