Leews Hamilton post-quali at Monza, Ferrari, Italian GP

Lewis Hamilton

Hamilton reveals ‘only’ regret from Italian GP outing with Ferrari

17:44, 07 Sep

bySamson Ero

Lewis Hamilton has given an honest assessment of his performance in the Italian Grand Prix. The Scuderia Ferrari driver admits his only has one regret of an eventful race at Monza.

The British driver, who was driving in his maiden Italian Grand Prix for the Ferrari team, put in a solid drive to recover from his 10th-place start to finish the race in sixth position. However, following the conclusion of the race, the seven-time world champion provided reasons for what he considers his only regret.

Hamilton, who was quick to praise his team after the race, identified how an undercut on Mercedes driver George Russell could have translated to even a better result.

“I definitely felt on top of the car today, and I was really happy with it. A really good launch, got squeezed between a couple of cars so had to back off, but was really happy with my position into Turn One and Turn Four,” Hamilton said to Sky Sports F1.

“After that, I got really close to George, and in hindsight, we should have tried to undercut him. Going long just didn’t pay off. That is something we’ll learn from.”

“Otherwise after the penalty to move back to sixth after the penalty I’m really grateful. To be able to have a solid drive like that today in front of the Tifosi – it’s unbelievable driving here under this banner.”

Hamilton: I didn’t deserve a podium

Hamilton however, felt that a podium finish was beyond his reach as he had no match for race-winner Max Verstappen or the two McLarens.

“I didn’t deserve to be on the podium today, so I won’t be going to the podium, but I’ll probably go out to the wall to see (all the fans)," he added.

“Charles was giving it everything. Max is up there now. We don’t have the pace of Red Bull – today they were rapid – and we don’t have the pace of McLaren. So I think we are fourth, fifth. If we do an exceptional job, we can maybe get a podium here or there. There’s a chance we can have that, but in terms of pure pace, we don’t have that.”