Hamilton critical of 'equal' Ferrari treatment after Monza Qualifying: 'We stumbled'

Hamilton
Photo: Race Pictures
F1 News
Updated: 19:09, 05 Sep
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Lewis Hamilton has suggested Ferrari's "equal" treatment of their drivers during Italian GP Qualifying was what led to a disappointing result at Monza - with the seven-time world champion ultimately finishing P4 behind teammate Charles Leclerc.
Despite gaining a place following a three-place grid penalty for McLaren's Oscar Piastri, Hamilton rued Ferrari's execution during Saturday's action - pointedly looking to Pierre Gasly's shock Pole Position in his post-Qualifying reflections.
Asked on what conversations Ferrari had had with regard to cooperation between teammates at Monza, where the tow has proven to be a critical tool during Qualifying, Hamilton told media, including GPblog: "What I can say is Pierre did a great job, clearly, looking from a distance. It looked like they worked really well as a team."
The seven-time world champion was actually fortunate to make it into Q3, finishing P10 in the second part of Qualifying - 0.001s ahead of Audi's Gabriel Bortoleto.
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Hamilton was puzzled over what exactly had caused that scare in Q2, with tyre pressure having been raised as one of the potential issues: "I don't really fully understand why we were lacking so much pace in Q2 because we should have had pace like we did in the first one," Hamilton said. "But everyone just advanced forward. So I don't know if that's tyre pressure. Not quite sure. I need to look look into that."

Hamilton: You need to ask Vasseur over team issues

lewis-hamilton-krijgt-uitleg-stewards
Photo: Race Pictures
Hamilton again pointed to how Ferrari handled cooperation between drivers, suggesting that the Scuderia's "sole" focus on getting a tow for both he and Leclerc at Monza could have prevented the team from securing a better result. Interestingly, coming into the weekend, Leclerc had revealed Hamilton would have priority during Qualifying.
Hamilton added: "I think at the end was the team was solely focused on trying to get an equal tow for each driver. And we just, as I said, we just stumbled."
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The Ferrari driver, who sits P3 in the Drivers' standings, 59 points behind leader Kimi Antonelli, was then asked why he believed team cooperation continues to not be quite where it should. Hamilton was brief in his reply: "It's not a question for me. You have to ask Fred [Vasseur, Ferrari team principal]."

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