Lewis Hamilton vowed to harrass his rivals as much as he can as he refused to rule out a fairytale first win as a Ferrari driver on Sunday. The seven-time world champion qualified third for the Monaco Grand Prix behind Max Verstappen and pole-sitter Kimi Antonelli.
Overtaking is very difficult on the streets of Monte Carlo due to the size of modern-day Formula 1 cars and so converting third place into victory seems unlikely unless misfortune befalls the two drivers starting ahead of him. But an upbeat Hamilton declared “nothing is impossible” as he told Verstappen and Antonelli to their faces that he will work hard to make them uncomfortable.
Hamilton said in the post-qualifying press conference: “We know how these races go, it’s very difficult. I don’t think there’s overtaking. I hope that we can get a really good start and maybe apply some pressure to the two. I kind of need rain, probably, but nothing is impossible. I’ll keep applying the pressure.
“It’s going to be very hard to beat these two. You’ve got two great drivers who are in quick cars and have been very quick all weekend. It’s a shame this race is generally often such a procession, in the sense that we’re just often following each other, and the car is always overheating, brakes always overheating, just with the way the track is.
“And, obviously, we only have really one stop because the tyres are so hard and often go so far. So, I hope there’s a genius way of making this race even more fun from a driver’s perspective and from a fan perspective in future. But I’m going to still give it absolutely everything and try and hassle them as much as I can and try and force them into not making certain corners.”
Antonelli is primed for what would be a fifth consecutive Grand Prix victory. And, to make matters even better for the 19-year-old, his team-mate and title rival George Russell could only manage to qualify sixth, and so he has the opportunity to add another sizeable chunk of points to the gap between the two Mercedes drivers which already stands at 43 after the first five rounds.
Reflecting on his qualifying performance, having pipped Verstappen narrowly to pole, Antonelli said: “It was one of those laps that we call the magic lap. I was able to put it all together and it was such a close qualifying with Max. I knew the last lap was good and I was just hoping that it would have been enough. It was very close and I’m very happy with that.”
Regarding the job he has left to do on Sunday, the Italian teenager added: “I know who is behind and I know they’re very good, so for sure they’re going to push me and they’re going to try to put pressure. First of all, I’ll try to get a good start. Canada was a step forward but tomorrow, of course, different conditions. And then we’ll see.
“You still need to have a good pace in hand because tyre degradation might be bigger than what we anticipate. We didn’t really try any long runs [in practice]. We did only a few laps, so we don’t really have as much data. But for sure we know that it’s very difficult to overtake, but you still need to have the pace because in case of something happening, you need to push.”