“5th was the best I could do”– Lewis Hamilton complains he is losing 0.2 seconds at final sector in Monza

Tanish Chachra | 10/09/2022
"5th was the best I could do"– Lewis Hamilton complains he is losing 0.2 seconds at final sector in Monza

Lewis Hamilton complains that he is losing a significant time at the final sector in Monza, giving Mercedes a blow to their tumultuous campaign.

The Italian Grand Prix qualifying blessed Mercedes, as multiple grid penalties to other drivers elevated George Russell to P2. On the other hand, Lewis Hamilton, who is taking a grid penalty with a new power unit, sees himself at P19.

Thus, Mercedes could only hope for many points from Russell. But there is another problem. Hamilton claims that Mercedes is losing a significant time of 0.2 seconds in the final sector of the track.

It can prevent Hamilton from overtaking efficiently and harm Russell in maintaining his podium contention. So, Mercedes can have an underwhelming performance on Sunday.

“It was an OK session. It wasn’t my best session,” said Hamilton. “I think today we were naturally off the pace and 5th was the best I could do.”

“I am losing two-tenths in the last sector, so ultimately, as a competitor, I need to figure out those last few corners but nonetheless, generally happy with it.”

Also read: Helmut Marko says Max Verstappen could leave his $53.3 Million job sooner than expected

Lewis Hamilton is afraid of the DRS train in Monza

The Briton predicts that there could be a huge chance of him being stuck in a DRS train during the race. He doesn’t think race day will be easy for him.

“It is going to be tough tomorrow because the DRS doesn’t make a huge difference, it is quite small, and there could be a lot of people in a DRS train, so that it could be quite a frustrating day. Nonetheless, I will try to be positive going into it,” said Hamilton.

Mercedes this season has been far from its usual turbo-hybrid era. But their recent developments have brought them ahead, and the Silver Arrows aim to have at least one win this year, which is yet to come.

Thus, the inconsistency in performances of W13 questions their ability to do it, considering Red Bull and Ferrari are a level above in their performances.

Also read: 2006 FIFA World Cup Winner Gianluigi Buffon visits Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz ahead of Italian GP

Post Edited By: Tanish Chachra
Lewis Hamilton Mercedes

About the author

Tanish Chachra

Tanish Chachra is the Motorsport editor at The SportsRush. He saw his first race when F1 visited India in 2011, and since then, his romance with the sport has been seasonal until he took up this role in 2020. Reigniting F1's coverage on this site, Tanish has fallen in love with the sport all over again. He loves Kimi Raikkonen and sees a future world champion in Oscar Piastri. Away from us, he loves to snuggle inside his books.

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