Lewis Hamilton in difficulty during qualifying
The British driver believes that he could not have done better than his eighth place in qualifying.
It’s a tough weekend for the seven-time world champion. One week after the renewed performance and the masterful race delivered by the British driver, Monaco is a whole different world.
With a difficult-to-handle and bouncy car, Lewis Hamilton is struggling. During qualifying, the Mercedes driver finishes over a second behind the pole-sitter, Charles Leclerc. Unlike the Monégasque and Fernando Alonso, he asserts that his last lap wouldn’t have been enough to improve his time.
“The red flag cost me my last lap, but anyway, I don’t think it would have been much different. In hindsight, I needed to push from my first lap, but I didn’t because I started the lap with a wrong engine mode. But Monaco is like that, it was just an unfortunate session,” he said after the session.
Despite the progress noted and acknowledged by driver number 44, the gap with the leading pack is still too significant. However, he hopes that the weather conditions for this Sunday can work in his favor to climb up in the rankings.
« The car is not performing well here, and we are forced to take big risks in order to get closer to the times of the cars ahead. We have improved it compared to Friday, and we have even gotten a bit closer, but even with a perfect lap, we would still be six tenths behind. Now we need to see what the weather will be like tomorrow and try to make progress in the pack. »
