Lewis Hamilton explained how his Italian Grand Prix start was almost too good, as he came away from the race feeling his afternoon was not maximised.

Crossing the line to secure P6, Hamilton felt he could have finished one place higher up, at the expense of former Mercedes team-mate George Russell. Alas, Ferrari did no attempt to undercut Russell with Hamilton, who feels that was an opportunity squandered.

Lewis Hamilton feels Italian GP P5 slipped away

Additional reporting by Thomas Maher

From tenth on the grid – a five-place grid drop having demoted Hamilton to that slot – the Ferrari driver made solid progress up the order through the opening laps. Soon enough, he was flirting with getting within DRS range of Russell, who was struggling to find a way past Charles Leclerc in the lead Ferrari.

Hamilton would ultimately drop back, and in this one-stop race, Russell pitted before Hamilton for the switch to hard tyres.

Russell went on to finish fifth, four and a half seconds up the road from Hamilton, who felt an undercut opportunity had been missed.

“I had a really good start,” he told PlanetF1.com and other media outlets.

“I had to lift just after the start because it was such a good start, and then I got kind of squeezed in between two cars.

“Other than that, I positioned the car really nicely, made my way forwards, and I think I could have got fifth today.

“I think I was 1.5 seconds behind George. We could have tried to undercut him. We missed that opportunity.”

Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc head-to-head in F1 2025

👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head qualifying statistics between team-mates

👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates

Nonetheless, Monza represented another positive race weekend for Hamilton. He spent it right on the pace of Leclerc.

Next up is the Azerbaijan Grand Prix. The Baku Circuit presents a similar challenge to Monza with a monster straight plus tight, technical turns which require precision.

Hamilton feels he will once more start from the “back foot”, as he adapts to lapping the track in Ferrari machinery, rather than Mercedes.

“I think I’m going to go there again, starting at a track that I’ve raced a different car for many years,” said Hamilton.

“I think the car feels better here, for example. It’s better in low speed, and the next race will be quite similar, I think.

“But I’ll start kind of on that back foot and build up through the weekend.”

With Leclerc crossing the line P4, he extended his gap over Hamilton in the Drivers’ Championship to 46 points.

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