Hamilton: Mercedes car "was pretty terrible" during Monaco qualifying

F1 News

22 May 2021 at 15:24

Lewis Hamilton will start the 2021 Monaco Grand Prix from seventh place. This is his lowest grid spot since the 2018 German Grand Prix where the British driver started from 14th. A race he went on to win. 

The seven-time World Champion tries to explain what went wrong in the streets of Monte Carlo. "It didn't feel too bad on Thursday. We made some changes and it was pretty terrible today. Of course, we got back to the drawing board," Hamilton told Sky Sports.

"From my point of view, I just had a lack of grip which leads you to overdrive and pushing to get more from it but it doesn't improve. A difficult one, Bottas was able to get something out of it but we had some problems today."

Overtaking

Hamilton has won the Monaco Grand Prix three times, including the last event to take place at this venue in 2019. To win that race, Hamilton had to keep an attacking Max Verstappen in his mirrors so the Brit knows how difficult overtaking is.

"It's almost impossible to overtake here. Saturday is the day. It puts the win out of reach, the minimum is obviously seventh," Hamilton added.