Lewis Hamilton urges Ferrari to put full weight behind F1 title challenge

Lewis Hamilton has suggested it is time his Ferrari team put their full weight behind his efforts to challenge for the Formula One world championship if he is to have a shot at the title, and warned his chances were diminishing with every race.

Hamilton trails Kimi Antonelli, the championship leader, by 59 points with 11 races to come. Having qualified in fifth for the Italian Grand Prix, one place behind his Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc, who is 87 points off the lead, Hamilton was asked if it was time Ferrari gave him priority as their best chance for the title.

“Yeah, there’s light at the end of the tunnel, but it’s getting dimmer the further we get through,” he said. “The team is doing an amazing job in bringing upgrades and pushing us forward, I always want to make sure that I acknowledge them and recognise them for that.

“I want them to continue to push and I want them to stay hungry and keep that passion on fire. But also at the track we need to come correct and act. We need to make sure we get the results we need.”

Hamilton had very nearly been eliminated during Q2 in qualifying, struggling for pace and questioning Ferrari’s decision-making in trying to give both drivers a chance of a tow at a high-speed circuit where it is vital for a quick lap.

“I don’t really fully understand why we were lacking so much pace in Q2, because we should have had pace like we did in the first one, but everyone just advanced forward, so I don’t know if that’s tyre pressure. I’m not quite sure, I need to look into that.

“I think at the end, the team was solely focused on trying to get an equal tow for each driver and we just stumbled.

“We were supposed to do a push, cool, cool, push [sequence of laps]. But because everyone was waiting and Charles didn’t want to go out first, we had to wait, wait, wait, and then we only got one push. It made it pretty challenging for us.”

Alpine’s Pierre Gasly took a remarkable pole position for the race, with Mercedes’ George Russell, who is equal with Hamilton on points – 59 behind Antonelli – in second place. With the Mercedes looking formidable in race pace and Antonelli starting from 20th after an engine-change grid penalty, Russell is in a strong position to make points back, and Hamilton emphasised this was a potentially crucial moment for Ferrari.

“We’re at a point in the year where 59 points is a huge deficit to recover from, especially when Mercedes continue to be the leaders in speed,” he said. “So yeah, we do have to work as a team.”

Leclerc and Hamilton will start from third and fourth respectively on Sunday after McLaren’s Oscar Piastri was given a three-place grid penalty.