“My heart was in my mouth” during near-misses in Q1 and Q2 – Hamilton

Lewis Hamilton feared he was going to be eliminated twice during qualifying for the Monaco Grand Prix.

The Mercedes driver rescued his session twice with last-gasp efforts after falling into the drop zone during Q1 and Q2. He eventually took sixth on the grid.
“I didn’t try to leave it late, it’s just how it turned out,” Hamilton told media including RaceFans afterwards.

The difficulty of bringing his tyres up to the required temperature on the low-grip Monaco circuit left Hamilton vulnerable to elimination twice.

“Our middle sector has been where we’re losing out all weekend so far,” he explained. “So I made a change over into qualifying which made it harder in the first and last sector. You can’t always have your cake and eat it.

“But I struggled to get temperature into the tyres in the session and so it was always that last, last lap that I managed to just pull something out. But my heart was in my mouth because it was like there could be a yellow flag, could be a red flag, who knows? But we made it through and I’m grateful for the lap we got.”

Hamilton revealed he also went back on a set-up change which his team mate George Russell did not entirely abandon.

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

“We’ve been trying something through the weekend and it was like there’s some uncertainty with it,” he said. “We went back halfway on the other car, but I went the full way on mine. I was like ‘no, take it off’, and they were like ‘no, no, we should keep it, keep it’. I was like, ‘I’m certain of it’.

“So I said ‘if I’m wrong, then I put my hands up’. And whether or not, I think at the end it was okay, but probably for a single lap, it was a little bit worse. But I think for the race it will be better so it should be okay.”

Hamilton may gain another place on the grid as Charles Leclerc is under investigation for impeding Lando Norris. “I’ll take anything I can get,” said the Mercedes driver. “When you think about it, we are having to rely on others currently. So when you have Checo in the wall it’s like ‘thank you!’”

He said he was pleased to see Alpine and Aston Martin emerge as potential rivals to Red Bull. “Ocon came out of nowhere,” said Hamilton. “He did obviously a great lap.

“I was really hopeful Fernando [Alonso] would have pole at the end. I saw it and I was like, ‘oh, this could be amazing for him’. But that Red Bull was just too quick.

“But that Aston is now almost on par with that Red Bull, that’s phenomenal work. So I’m really happy for Aston and I hope that we can be there soon.”

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

2023 Monaco Grand Prix

• Mercedes ready to “grind” their way to competitiveness after major W14 update
• Verstappen surpasses Vettel as winner of most races for Red Bull
• How the first team to fit intermediate tyres in Monaco got the call right
• Verstappen’s Monaco pole run was the completion of his 2021 Jeddah lap – Horner
• Haas thrilled as upgrade performance exceeds wind tunnel predictions

Browse all 2023 Monaco Grand Prix articles