Vasseur: Hamilton is back

Hamilton was in better shape this weekend at Monza, his first at the historic track in Ferrari colors, and it seems he was given a boost by the welcoming Tifosi.

He was close to Charles Leclerc in terms of pace, and while he qualified fifth, just a tenth behind his teammate, he had to serve a five-place grid penalty, which he picked up from the Dutch Grand Prix.

But the seven-time Formula 1 Champion drove a solid race to finish sixth, and Vasseur was more than satisfied with his performance.

Vasseur reflected on his team's home race at Monza and said: "The target was to finish on the podium.

"Charles did a strong race, a very good fight at the beginning, but we overheated the tyres. We were not that far away from McLaren. Max [Verstappen] was flying.

"He came back," the Frenchman added when asked about Hamilton. "With the penalty, he was in the middle of the pack but had a strong first stint.

"We tried to have a tyre advantage at the end [against George Russell], but the degradation was too low. It was a very good race, and I'm very pleased for him because he had a tough time in July, and he's back, back on the pace.

"He had a good weekend, a good mood, good approach, and I think it will help [for the rest of the season]," Vasseur concluded.

Hamilton was oozing positivity after his first Italian Grand Prix as a Ferrari driver; he said: "I definitely felt on top of the car today, and I was really happy with it.

"A really good launch; I got squeezed between a couple of cars, so had to back off but was really happy with my position into Turn 1 and Turn 4.

“After that I got really close to George [Russell], and in hindsight we should have tried to undercut him. Going long just didn’t pay off. That is something we’ll learn from.

“Otherwise, after the penalty to move back to sixth after the penalty, I’m really grateful. To be able to have a solid drive like that today in front of the Tifosi—it’s unbelievable driving here under this banner.

"Charles was giving it everything," Hamilton added. "Max is up there now. We don’t have the pace of Red Bull—today they were rapid—and we don’t have the pace of McLaren.

"So I think we are fourth, fifth. If we do an exceptional job, we can maybe get a podium here or there. There’s a chance we can have that, but in terms of pure pace, we don’t have that," he concluded.

Leclerc had an exciting early tussle at the start of the race when they were fighting for third, but the Australian emerged victorious, after which the Monegasque had to settle for fourth as he could not get close to the #81 McLaren again.

"It was a nice battle with Oscar [at the start]," Leclerc said. "I felt like I was overtaking when he was doing a mistake, and he was overtaking me when I did a mistake.

“They just had more pace than I did. I tried things that were not in the car, and so I lost the rear multiple times, and that meant I couldn’t hope for much better, unfortunately.

“I tried; I don’t have any regrets. Unfortunately the pace in the car was a little bit worse than what we expected," he lamented. "Singapore, maybe Baku, and Las Vegas are maybe the tracks we are a bit closer to win a race.

"But I think we are third favorites—maybe if Red Bull struggles, maybe second, but never the first ones, so it will always be quite uphill and difficult," Leclerc concluded.

(Quotes from Sky Sports F1)