It was a mostly solitary race for Lewis Hamilton in Monte Carlo, and it could hardly have been otherwise, especially after the three-place grid penalty he received on Saturday for impeding Max Verstappen in qualifying, due to a miscommunication from his race engineer.
Starting from seventh is always a disadvantage, but even more so on a track like Monaco, where there’s little room to turn the race around without unexpected events. In the first phase of the race, Hamilton remained exactly where he started – in seventh place – behind both Isack Hadjar in the Racing Bulls and Fernando Alonso in the Aston Martin.
Only during the first round of pit stops did Ferrari manage to reverse the situation, executing an overcut on both Hadjar and Alonso by staying out longer and thus being able to express its pace without being held up by slower cars.
Although it’s true that Lewis Hamilton didn’t have Oscar Piastri’s pace, most of the gap to the Ferrari driver came during the traffic phase. For context: Verstappen came out of the pits around three seconds ahead of Lewis Hamilton; after lapping backmarkers, the gap between them had grown to fifteen seconds.
Even though the Dutchman was on fresher and softer tyres, that stat illustrates how much Hamilton’s race was slowed during that phase, effectively removing him from contention for a better result.
The time lost also allowed Oscar Piastri to extend his stint and build a sufficient gap to pit and still rejoin ahead. Looking at Hamilton’s pace compared to Max Verstappen‘s, when he was in clean air it wasn’t too far off, but the time lost in traffic and the grid penalty were decisive.
Hamilton was one of the last to pit, as the initial plan was to extend his stint and hope for a favorable incident, since Hadjar behind him was far enough away not to pose a real threat. Ferrari could gamble strategically and hope for a twist, but even that last glimmer quickly faded.
In the end, Hamilton finished almost fifty seconds off the lead, having lost further time in traffic, in a race that gave him only fifth place – and few emotions.
“Yesterday we were fourth, which at least is something positive, but it’s frustrating to have been knocked out of contention by a penalty,” Lewis Hamilton said after the race, getting straight to the point and identifying the key moment of his weekend.
One of the new features introduced in Monaco was the mandatory double pit stop, but for Hamilton it made little difference – except for the traffic caused by some teams swapping positions to slow the pack. “I mean, I can’t speak for others, but for me it didn’t really make a big difference.”
“As I said, it didn’t really change anything for my race. I guess it was better for the race in general, because otherwise people would have just stopped once and stayed there forever, blocking everyone.”
Sometimes luck helps, sometimes it doesn’t. Last week, a VSC at just the right moment helped him maximize a one-stop strategy, but since Imola another aspect has emerged – highlighted after Saturday’s qualifying – which is that his feeling with the SF-25 has improved, even if it only translated into fifth place this time.
“Last week went well. This one wasn’t great, as you can see. From a performance point of view, I mean, qualifying fourth wasn’t bad. Hopefully I’ll have a better race weekend next time.”
Speaking about the new directive that will come into effect next week, introducing stricter rules on front wing flex, Hamilton believes it will definitely have an effect, as it helps balance the car better – but not a decisive one: “It’ll definitely have an effect. It influences balance a bit, but I don’t think it’s a huge thing. It affects more or less everyone equally. I don’t think it will make much of a difference.”
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