Mercedes Explain What Happened With Hamilton After 'Furious' Post-Qualifying Comments
F1Thursday, 05 September 2024 at 22:08
Updated at Thursday, 05 September 2024 at 22:09
Mercedes trackside engineering director Andrew Shovlin gave insight into what happened with Lewis Hamilton during the qualifying event in Italy.
Mercedes F1 driver Lewis Hamilton qualified for the 2024 Italian Grand Prix only in P6. Although Mercedes ultimately didn't have the pace to compete for the podium either way, the seven-time World Champion didn't know that right after qualifying.
Asked how he felt following the qualifying session at Monza Circuit, Hamilton said he was "furious" as he should have been on the front row.
The 39-year-old also said there was no one else to blame but himself. When Andrew Shovlin was asked (during Mercedes's Italian GP debrief) whether there was more on the table for Hamilton, he said:
“"I'm sure we could've done a bit better. And the root of Lewis' frustrations is evident when you look at the GPS data to see that going into that final corner, we were within half a tenth of Lando and his pole position lap, but then the last corner for Lewis didn't work out particularly well."”
“"He lost a bit of time there, and had it not been for that, he could've easily been on the front row if not challenging for pole."”
Lewis Hamilton In Ascari Chicane At Monza Circuit Duting Qualifying for 2024 Italian Grand Prix
The nature of F1 nowadays is that the qualifying battles are getting closer and closer. Only 0,077 seconds separated the seven-time Champ from P2, which would be the front-row start.
This means five of the top drivers qualified within one-tenth of a second—a super close qualifying session, which is, of course, great for all fans but sometimes annoying for the drivers. Shovlin continued:
“"What we've seen in the recent races is that fights for the front of the grid is actually extending all the way down to P7, P8."”
“"You can get so many cars there within two tenths of a second, and that's the sort of margin where it really comes down to whether the drivers put that lap together."”
“"And frustratingly for Lewis, he'd shown great pace in Q2, didn't quite get it right for that final run in Q3, and you can drop all the way down to P6. It's just how tight it is at the moment."”
Hamilton's teammate, George Russell, also made a small mistake in the final corner. However, it wasn't as significant, so he qualified for P3. Ultimately, Russell finished the race in P7 (due to driver error at the start) and Hamilton in P5.
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