24/05/2025 21:00
Lewis Hamilton has offered an insight into his qualifying incident
with Max Verstappen during qualifying in Monaco. The incident
occurred during Q1 as Verstappen was forced to abandon his hot lap
as he came across Hamilton at the top of the hill. Both drivers
managed to make it through to the next segment of qualifying,
however it gained the attention of the stewards, who handed
Hamilton a three-place grid drop. Hamilton has stated the issue
came about after Ferrari's computers indicated Verstappen was not
on a push lap. "I don't know if there's some sort of issue with the
computer screen, it said that Max was on the lap, and then it
disappeared and said he wasn't," Hamilton told media including
RacingNews365 . "That was the information they gave me. They told
me he was on a lap. So I moved to the side. I was completely out of
the way. "I guess for them, they realised he wasn't on a lap, they
told me so I started to accelerate. "I stayed fully to the left and
I wasn't on the racing line - but of course it was distracting for
Max." Hamilton ended the qualifying session in fourth place just
hours after his final practice outing ended with a crash. The
result marked his best result of the year over one lap for Ferrari,
however he has now been bumped back to seventh on the starting
grid. As he continues to adjust to the car, the seven-time champion
highlighted team-mate Charles Leclerc's experience with the team is
helping him build an advantage in the intra-team battle. "It's a
much different car driving here than I've had for the last 12
years, but one I've really enjoyed driving," he added. "Obviously,
Charles has been driving this car, or at least, the way they set
the car up here for the last six years. "He's fully the hits the
ground [running] and he's he knows it like the back of his hand.
This weekend has been a quick, steep learning curve, but I was
quite happy with the recovery from the crash [in FP3]."
