Ferrari, Leclerc, and Hamilton Make No Secret of Their Disappointment at Monza: “Now We Need a Miracle”
Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton couldn’t hide their disappointment after finishing fourth and fifth in the official qualifying session for the Italian Grand Prix: “I’m very disappointed, honestly,” admitted the Monegasque driver. “We didn’t perform up to par; there were a lot of mistakes and issues during qualifying. First with the engine, then with other issues afterward. When you get to Q3, you have to go after those last hundredths. Honestly, we couldn’t have challenged Pierre, but we could have done better.”
“We can only blame ourselves, and we’ll try to figure out why we had all these problems only in qualifying—because normally we’re able to anticipate these kinds of issues in free practice. I’ll try to pull off a miracle anyway. I managed to do it in both 2019 and 2024: that’s all I can think about.”
Lewis Hamilton is also in a sour mood: “The execution in Q3 was terrible. I found myself out in the middle of nowhere. When you’re behind another car, you’re faster through several corners, you adjust your braking point, and it’s all about finding the rhythm. The second attempt wasn’t terrible, but with different reference points, I wasn’t able to make the most of it.”
“But I’m looking on the bright side: I’m privileged—I’m driving a red car at Monza in front of a sea of fans. I want to give all these people something special. I’ll go all out, but then we have to be perfect.”
Team Principal Vasseur commented on Ferrari’s Saturday as follows: “It was a tight qualifying session, right on the limit. Anything could have happened. Beating Russell would have been extremely difficult, and we were also worried about Verstappen. In any case, the second row is a good position for us. The slipstream effect worked on the straights but was counterproductive in the corners. In the end, it’s fine—it’s not a bad result. I’m happy for Gasly, but tomorrow… we’ll see. In any case, Alpine has been fast right from the start of the weekend.”
