Lewis Hamilton left qualifying feeling relatively positive as he finished 8th in the Imola qualifying session with a 1:15.504, almost three tenths behind his teammate George Russell who qualified 6th with a 1:15.234.
Russell now leads the Grand Prix qualifying head-to-head 6-1 as the seven-time World Champion admitted he could not match the pace of his younger teammate.
“I think George’s was the maximum pace-wise that our car would do. I couldn’t reach that today. Yesterday was looking strong, but good, positive to see us pace-wise a little bit closer.”
Hamilton had a shaky start in Q1, almost prematurely exiting qualifying as he got through in P15.
Q2 fared better for Hamilton, finishing with a 1:15.677, behind his teammate by only 6 thousandths of a second.
He says Mercedes still hasn’t fully understood the performance disparity between Friday and Saturday as the 39-year-old fell away slightly once again.
“That’s one thing we don’t fully understand. On Friday we seem a bit quicker, and then on Saturday we seem to lose a little bit of time to the others.
“But George was pretty quick out there, so I think he probably got the set-up pretty sweet as he has done most of this year.”
Hamilton agrees with Norris that Imola is a difficult track to overtake on and doesn’t expect an eventful race come the Grand Prix.
“Yeah, but also I’ll try and get past Tsunoda if I can, that would be helpful. And then after that I think it’s really just about managing the tyres and the cars ahead of George are a process, so that’s kind of where we are.”
Hamilton says it’s easy to stay focused as Mercedes lags behind their competitors this season and are not able to fight for victories at present.
“It is pretty easy to stay focused, you just have to keep your head down, but you see the differences between cars still. Weekend in, weekend out, upgrade after upgrade.
“And then the same things are being said each weekend, end of straight speed, all these different things, so at some stage that will change it. I’ll get as many points as I can.”
Even if Hamilton is moving to Ferrari next season, he says he’s still part of all the key meetings and is still closely working with Mercedes until the end to help them achieve more next year in the final season with the current regulations.
Hamilton has yet to win in the ground effect era as Mercedes has struggled to understand their cars.
“Yes, still nothing’s changed. We’re still having our big meetings back at the factory. I’m still fully enjoying working with everyone and having discussions.
“The team’s been really, really great. Also, I’m massively respectful. I’m here trying to help this team progress this year and also into next year.”
