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.<\/p>\n
Crossing the line to secure P6, Hamilton<\/a> 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.<\/p>\n Lewis Hamilton feels Italian GP P5 slipped away<\/p>\n Additional reporting by Thomas Maher<\/p>\n From tenth on the grid \u2013 a five-place grid drop<\/a> having demoted Hamilton to that slot \u2013 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.<\/p>\n Hamilton would ultimately drop back, and in this one-stop race, Russell pitted before Hamilton for the switch to hard tyres.<\/p>\n Russell went on to finish fifth, four and a half seconds up the road from Hamilton, who felt an undercut opportunity had been missed.<\/p>\n \u201cI had a really good start,\u201d he told PlanetF1.com and other media outlets.<\/p>\n \u201cI 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.<\/p>\n \u201cOther than that, I positioned the car really nicely, made my way forwards, and I think I could have got fifth today.<\/p>\n \u201cI think I was 1.5 seconds behind George. We could have tried to undercut him. We missed that opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n Lewis Hamilton and Charles Leclerc head-to-head in F1 2025<\/p>\n \ud83d\udc49 F1 2025: Head-to-head qualifying statistics between team-mates<\/a><\/p>\n \ud83d\udc49 F1 2025: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates<\/a><\/p>\n Nonetheless, Monza represented another positive race weekend for Hamilton. He spent it right on the pace of Leclerc.<\/p>\n 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.<\/p>\n Hamilton feels he will once more start from the \u201cback foot\u201d, as he adapts to lapping the track in Ferrari machinery, rather than Mercedes.<\/p>\n \u201cI think I\u2019m going to go there again, starting at a track that I\u2019ve raced a different car for many years,\u201d said Hamilton.<\/p>\n \u201cI think the car feels better here, for example. It\u2019s better in low speed, and the next race will be quite similar, I think.<\/p>\n \u201cBut I\u2019ll start kind of on that back foot and build up through the weekend.\u201d<\/p>\n With Leclerc crossing the line P4, he extended his gap over Hamilton in the Drivers\u2019 Championship<\/a> to 46 points.<\/p>\n