Hamilton pinpoints key Ferrari advantage for Italian GP despite grid penalty

18:06, 06 Sep

Updated: 18:09, 06 Sep

byTobia Elia

Lewis Hamilton commented on his fifth-place qualifying result in Monza, noting that he will start tomorrow’s race from tenth on the grid following the five-place grid penalty.

After showing strong pace throughout the weekend, Hamilton completed his first qualifying session at Monza as a Ferrari driver in fifth place, just behind his teammate Charles Leclerc.

Both Maranello drivers were unable to beat the two McLarens, but most notably Max Verstappen, who produced a masterful lap to secure his fifth pole position of the season.

Lewis Hamilton finishes P5 in Monza qualifying

Hamilton happy with the progress at Monza

Speaking to GPblog at the end of Qualifying, the seven-time world champion said: ''I'm happy with the progress through the weekend. I think we've made progress from last weekend and then carried that through this week.''

''I've been relatively happy with the car and the progress. In FP1 the car felt great, I think that's where it felt probably the best. And then we went into FP2, we made changes into qualifying, and I think it was the most we could get from it.''

Hamilton will serve a five-place grid penalty tomorrow, carried over from last weekend in Zandvoort, meaning he will start the race from tenth place.

When asked what he could achieve in tomorrow’s race, the Briton said: ''Obviously with the penalty and everyone being so close it's going to be tough to overtake everybody ahead of me.''

Hamilton is confident that the straight-line speed of his SF-25 could be a key weapon for making a comeback tomorrow: ''We've got good top-line speed so I'm really hoping that I can try to make up some ground. I'll need to do a good start, a good first lap, a good strategy.''

''We'll go away now and try to figure out what we can do to try to leapfrog the guys up ahead of me, if possible.''