Lewis Hamilton has expressed “huge anger” over his sixth-place finish at the Italian Grand Prix, as he believes his mistake cost him the chance for pole position.
Mercedes were competitive throughout the session and Hamilton was provisionally second on the line after the first run of Q3, but dropped to sixth on the final lap. The top six were covered by a total of 0.186s and Hamilton says he failed to produce a clean lap, which would have cost him the chance to beat Lando Norris’s benchmark.
“I was absolutely furious,” Hamilton told Sky Sports. “I could have been on pole. I could have at least been on the front row. I just didn’t do my job. I lost a tenth and a half in Turns 1 and 2 and then another tenth in the last corner. I have no one to blame but myself. Qualifying was my weak point for a while and I can’t figure out why. I’ll just keep working on it.”
Hamilton is planning a reshuffle ahead of the race, but joked that Mercedes could be better off if he moves to Ferrari in 2025 and is replaced by Andrea Kimi Antonelli.
“I’ll probably have to kick myself a little bit over the next couple of hours. Ultimately, we’ve got to move on. We’ve got a good race car and the team did an amazing job this weekend,” he said. “The car felt a lot better than it did last race and the team deserves better. Maybe they’ll get it with Kimi.”
Hamilton also believes it will be difficult to win from sixth place because of the fierce competition in terms of individual performances.
“The chance to win the race is already gone and tomorrow we have to recover as much as possible and see if we can beat Ferrari and get on the podium.”
