Hamilton not pleased to go backwards at Italian GP
F1 News
It's not often we see Lewis Hamilton finish a race in a lower grid position than he starts, and the five-time champion has revealed that he was disappointed with his race, despite finishing on the podium and seeing his lead in the championship close by just two points.
Hamilton looked set to take the lead over Ferrari star Charles Leclerc at the first corner, but couldn't make it stick on the inside, What followed was a nearly race long battle for the win, with Hamilton so close to getting past but never managing it.
Then, with only a handful of laps to go, Hamilton cracked and locked up at turn one, forcing him to go through the run off area, allowing teammate Valtteri Bottas to get past and take P2.
After pitting for fresh tyres, Hamilton did set the fastest lap, which limited the damage done in the championship, his lead is still a huge 63 points with just seven events to go.
He said in the post race press conference: "There’s not a lot of pleasure from finishing third. Going backwards is never a great thing. Still, it was a great race. He did a great job. It was nice and tight for a long time and they deserved the win – they did a better job."
Hamilton and Leclerc got pretty close on track a couple of times, and in reply to a question from Autosport, Hamilton said: "Yeah, it’s just racing I guess. I had to avoid colliding with him a couple of times but I guess that’s how the racing is today. You just move forwards."