By Alan Baldwin
MONZA, Italy (Reuters) – A furious Lewis Hamilton slammed his own performance as completely unacceptable after qualifying sixth in his last Italian Grand Prix with Mercedes on Saturday.
The seven-times world champion is moving to Ferrari next season and being replaced by 18-year-old Italian Kimi Antonelli, announced on Saturday.
Hamilton had been fastest in qualifying at Monza on Friday and Saturday’s final session, as well as in the second phase of qualifying, and he said the Ferrari fans were already showing him plenty of love.
“I was expecting to do a better job than I did,” the 39-year-old told reporters.
“I just didn’t extract the maximum.
“In turn one and two I lost a tenth and a half to my previous Q2 lap and then I lost another 10th in turn 11 in apex speed. It was just absolutely ridiculous from my side. Completely unacceptable.”
“And it’s just totally me. Nothing else. Nobody else.”
Hamilton, who had been hoping for a record sixth Italian win on Sunday, said his race pace was good but he needed to work on getting back his qualifying form of old.
Teammate George Russell, who will line up third behind the two McLarens, has out-qualified Hamilton 12-4 so far this season.
“I’m so far behind now. The chance of fighting for a race win is out the window,” said Hamilton of his prospects.
“I think tomorrow I just got to try and recover as much as I can and see if I can get past the Ferraris and try challenging to get to the podium.”
The Briton said it had been surreal to hear Antonelli announced as his successor, even if he had known well in advance, after so many years with the team he joined in 2013.
“It was quite emotional this morning but really, really happy for Kimi and for this team,” he said, admitting it would be a big wrench to leave eventually. “I know Kimi’s going to do a great job.”
(Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Pritha Sarkar)
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