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Hamilton was trapped behind Albon: "Cost Lewis two positions"
Lewis Hamilton was fast on the hard tyre at the Italian Grand Prix. The Mercedes driver had to make up for a lot of time after his ten-second stop-and-go penalty and that was no problem for the Brit. Hamilton was able to overtake eight competitors in 14 laps.
In the end, Hamilton was able to claim seventh place and the extra World Championship point for the fastest lap of the day. There might have been even more for the 36-year-old driver if he had caught up with Alexander Albon earlier. It only took Hamilton eight laps to close the gap to Albon, but he ended up behind the Red Bull for four laps.
Hamilton could have been fifth
"This probably cost Lewis two positions," the Mercedes engineers said to Auto, Motor und Sport. There is an explanation for the fact that Hamilton was able to put such terrible pace on the track and teammate Valtteri Bottas was not. "If the car is so bad in the corners on one side, something must have been wrong," said the engineers.
Bottas said afterwards that an initial investigation did not provide any answers. Nevertheless, it was clear to him that there was a problem. "In turn 7, I had a lot of understeer and in turn 8, the car didn't give up at all. If you're badly out of Lesmo, Ascari and the Parabolica, you can't get close enough to the car in front of you. I've never been closer than seven-tenths to the car in front of me," he said of the DRS train.