Lewis Hamilton believes that he had been”really unlucky” to not pip Charles Leclerc to Italian GP pole – but states he’s enjoying the”exciting” duel with Ferrari at Monza.
With the last laps of Q3 destroyed by the farcical battle for a tow round F1’s quickest lap, the struggle for rod was ultimately settled by the very first Q3 runs – which Leclerc won from Mercedes’ Hamilton by a mere 0.036s and Valtteri Bottas from 0.047s.
But both Bottas and Hamilton reckon pole could have been theirs had they never had to lift if KimI Raikkonen crashed in the Parabolica ahead of them. When it snapped off, hamilton was supporting the Alfa Romeo.
“I was very unfortunate,” Hamilton told Sky Sports F1. “I was only behind Kimi for my first lap. I probably started the lap near so that I caught him. Clearly with a car you need to generate a larger gap for the tow.
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“I started catching him through the corners and I was thinking’do not grab him too much’ and I got into the final corner and he spun, so I had to lift. With that elevator I would have easily lost an inch plus it would have bene the gap between rod and instant.
Nevertheless, the championship leader said:”But that is leaving. I love that it’s that close and it is not several tenths.”
Leclerc vs Hamilton in comparison
In side-by-side SkyPad analysis of Leclerc and also Hamilton’s laps, Anthony Davidson reveals how the Mercedes had been fractionally before Ferrari beginning the backstraight that leads into the Parabolica – then was level pegging leaving the last turn despite inevitably having to facilitate away for Raikkonen.
In the movie above, Sky F1’s Davidson says:”Raikkonen spins out in front and Lewis certainly has to back out of this ever so slightly.
“On the departure, even though a vehicle spinning in front of him and clearly needing to flip out, the additional speed the Mercedes inherently has beneath it when it moves via a high-speed corner is sufficient to keep him pretty substantially level pegging with the Ferrari.
“Unfortunately for himonto that [pit] straight, only at the end that’s what made the difference.”
Meanwhile, Leclerc said he hadn’t been pleased.
“Mercedes were quick, we were very fast also,” the Ferrari driver stated.
“My lap was not special. I was far too near Hulkenberg on the timed lap. At the corners I was losing a great deal, although the slipstream was excellent. It was not perfect, but I was far too close”
Hamilton and Bottas start between the two Ferraris on Sunday’s grid and the Englishman said:”I’m really happy we improved the automobile piece by bit during the weekend and also managed to get quite close to the Ferraris which is great.”
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