Hamilton: I didn't expect to finish fourth

Hamilton started the race from 12th on the grid, with Leclerc starting from 11th, and the seven-time Formula 1 champion benefitted from a decent Ferrari strategy after starting the race on Hard tyres benefitting from a Virtual Safety Car and then a Safety Car to fight his way up to fourth in the end.

"I definitely didn't expect for us to finish fourth today," Hamilton said after the race. "I didn't know where we would be able to come given we were so far back, but the car really felt great. The team did a fantastic job with the strategy and they were all faultless."

Hamilton has struggled since joining Ferrari and had particular issues with the brakes at Imola, but he was buoyed by his performance on Sunday in front of the Tifosi.

He claimed: "I think we're slowly getting there and I think me and Riccardo [Adami] did a fantastic job with his communication with me.

"I was calm, so then I think he was calm, and the team were calm and executing the strategy, and the pit stops were awesome.

"So overall, mega. I was hoping for some extra laps. Obviously the Safety Car lost them or we could have maybe fought for a podium," he concluded.

In the sister Ferrari, Leclerc cut a frustrated figure after finishing sixth, particularly when his race engineer informed him that he could not pit under the Safety Car as the team didn't have any tyres available to give him.

As a result, he had to finish the race on old tyres while others around him had fresh sets, which made the Monegasque desperate in his defense, his pushing of Alex Albon off the track an example. He was under investigation, but Ferrari asked him to give the position back to avoid a penalty.

There was also an earlier incident with Alpine's Pierre Gasly, who went off track trying to pass Leclerc, but the latter was not at fault.

But Leclerc claimed his frustration was even before the racing started because of his starting position; he said: "I was saying before, it's one of the races where you've got to race with the heart and put the elbows out a little bit.

"When it's like this you go very much on the limit, sometimes a little bit over. But when you are starting P11, as a driver I cannot accept the situation we are in.

"I took risks. I don't think with Pierre I was at fault or over the limit. It was a racing indecent. With Alex it was very much on the limit for sure," Leclerc maintained.

Fourth and sixth was a decent recovery for Ferrari, having started from 11th and 12th, but that was definitely not the result the Tifosi, who flocked down to Imola to watch their revered team, would've wanted.

(Quotes from Sky Sports F1)