Lewis Hamilton was “absolutely furious” to qualify sixth for the Italian Grand Prix, as he believes his mistakes cost him a chance of pole position.
Mercedes was competitive throughout the session and Hamilton was provisionally on the second row after his first run of Q3, before slipping to sixth with his final lap. The top six were covered by just 0.186s in total, and Hamilton says he didn’t put a clean lap together that cost him a chance of beating Lando Norris’ benchmark.
“Absolutely furious,” Hamilton told Sky Sports. “I could have been on pole. I could have been at least on the front row. I didn’t do the job in the end. I lost a tenth and a half into Turn 1 and 2 and then I lost another tenth at the last corner. No one to blame but myself. Qualifying has been my weakness for a minute now and I can’t figure it out. I’ll keep trying. “
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While Hamilton looks to reset ahead of the race, he joked that Mercedes might be better off once he moves to Ferrari and is replaced by Andrea Kimi Antonelli in 2025.
“Probably a little bit of kicking myself over the next couple of hours. Ultimately I’ve got to move forwards. We have a good race car, the team have done an amazing job this weekend,” he said. “The car has been feeling much better than the last race and the team deserve better. Maybe they’ll get that with Kimi.”
Hamilton also believes he is unlikely to be in the mix for victory from sixth on the grid, given how close the field is in terms of outright performance.
“The chance of fighting for a race win is out the window and tomorrow I’ve got to try and recover as much as I can, and see if I can get past the Ferraris and try challenging to get a podium.”