Lewis Hamilton is upbeat about Ferrari’s potential at their home race, despite knowing his five-place grid penalty will compromise his starting position.
He was quickest in the opening practice session at Monza but fell to fifth in the second session. “We made some changes and the car was a bit worse,” he explained after the session. “The good thing is we can go back on it.”
“[First practice] was feeling really, really strong and [second practice] was definitely much more of a struggle,” he told the official Formula 1 channel. “But it’s better to have that in P2 and learn from that rather than P3. So there’s lots of positives to take from today.”
Hamilton believes Ferrari are in the hunt with the quickest cars at Monza. “We’ll do some work overnight and I hope that tomorrow we can be better,” he said.
“I think the McLarens are obviously still very, very fast and I think it’s very close with everyone in the top 10.
“So it will be a challenge. It’s not easy to overtake and I’ve obviously got that penalty which is unfortunate but to better have it now than next year, I guess.”
He is carrying a five-place grid penalty from last weekend’s race and is therefore unlikely to start higher than sixth.
“Wherever I qualify, I’m starting five places back from that, which is not great,” he acknowledged.
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“But I do feel optimistic. I still feel like I could potentially move forward. I was much happier with the car today, so I hope that continues tomorrow.”
“It will continue tomorrow,” he concluded, “because I’ll make the changes tonight and come with a fresh head tomorrow.”
Hamilton’s team mate Charles Leclerc, who was second fastest on Friday, believes they are in with a chance of taking pole position. “I think it’s on the cards,” he said, “but I don’t know how much Red Bull and McLaren have pushed just yet. I think they have more than what we have in the pocket.
“So we still need to improve the car, but if we do, then I think there’s a possibility.”
“On low fuel and high fuel it’s been quite tricky but fast,” he added. “I’d rather be in this position than having a consistent car but being slow. But we need to work a little bit on consistency.
“I think on the short runs we managed to extract more or less what there was in the car. However, for tomorrow we need that consistency and we are working on that.
“But I think with the two cars we tried different things, especially in FP1, and it seems that we kind of know the direction for tomorrow. So I hope it’s the right one, but I’m confident it is.”
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