‘I’m not very good’ – Hamilton ‘furious’ with himself as he claims he should have taken pole for Italian GP

“I’m furious. Furious,” added Hamilton to Sky Sports F1. “I could have been pole, I could have been… at least on the front row, and I just didn’t do the job in the end. I lost a tenth and a half into Turn 1, or through Turn 1 and 2, and I lost another tenth in the last corner, so there’s no one to blame but myself and it’s… Qualifying has been my weakness for a minute now, and I can’t figure it out. I’ll keep trying.”

Qualifying came just hours after the announcement that Hamilton – who opted ahead of the start of the season to sign for Ferrari for 2025 – will be replaced at Mercedes by 18-year-old Kimi Antonelli, who endured a dramatic debut Free Practice 1 outing after crashing Russell’s car at Parabolica.

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But Hamilton was left to joke – when asked how he’d reset ahead of Sunday’s race – that perhaps Antonelli would provide the kind of performances for Mercedes that he couldn’t at the moment.

“I’ll probably be a little bit kicking myself over the next couple of hours,” he said. “Ultimately I’ve got to move forwards. We have a good race car, the team have done an amazing job this weekend and the car’s just been feeling so much better than the last race – and the team deserve better. Maybe they’ll get that with Kimi.”