Ferrari’s Lewis Hamilton finished P3 at the F1 2026 Monaco GP Qualifying with a lap time of 1:12.279, just behind Antonelli and Verstappen.
Despite the great result, Hamilton was disappointed after the qualifying session. Both him and Leclerc had dominated the weekend so far. With the exception of FP3, where Antonelli stole first place, the Ferrari drivers had locked the front positions.
Still, Hamilton was grateful for the result. Finishing two tenths from pole, the Brit was able to beat his teammate, Charles Leclerc, who qualified P4 after hitting the wall on his last lap.
Hamilton: “I was on the edge as much as I could be”
During the top 3 post-qualifying press conference, Lewis Hamilton was asked whether he felt he extracted the maximum from the car.
The seven-time world champion congratulated Antonelli on his pole, but declared: “Yes. Yes, unfortunately.
“We were looking really strong throughout the weekend, and it’s always so much fun driving around this track. And I felt great in the car, and I think we made progress yesterday.
“And then coming into today, we took a bit of a step back. We lost some performance overnight. And then going into qualifying, the car was really in a bad place.”
Hamilton explained: “So you see Q1, I was like seven tenths down or something like that, and had to make huge adjustments to the wing in order to try and rebalance the car for some reason.
“So I’m not quite sure exactly what went wrong. We’ll deep dive into it. But I think ultimately we lost the chance to fight for the front row going into quality with the balance that we ended up with.
“So it was a bit of a surprise, but I’m still grateful I got everything I could out of it at the end with the balance that I had.
“And yeah, the car was on the edge. I was on the edge as much as I could be.”
“I don’t think we went the wrong way with set-up,” says Hamilton
After Hamilton explained the changes applied to the SF-26 before qualifying, he was asked whether he felt the team had made the wrong decision.
Although both Ferrari drivers qualified on the second row, the result came as a surprise after the Scuderia had dominated the free practice sessions. Hamilton had finished P2 in FP1, P1 on FP2 and P3 on FP3.
“I don’t think we went the wrong way with set-up. That’s the thing. Again, we’re tiniest tweaks, like a millimetre here, a millimetre there. So tiniest tweaks,” argued the Ferrari driver.
“But we really need to look into what switched, because the car was completely different to what it was before. And I didn’t have any rear end for some reason, which I’d had a good balance most of the weekend.”
He regretted: “So yeah, I do think with the pace that we had yesterday, I think we could have been closer. These guys really started putting out some amazing times at the end. So fair play to them.”
“And we’ll push hard tomorrow. Hopefully we can keep up. And who knows, maybe we could have a really good start.”
Hamilton on how the 2026 regulations car drives around Monaco
During the press conference, Hamilton was also asked to rank his experience with the 2026 car in the Monte Carlo streets against past-generation cars.
The British driver concluded: “I think probably one of my least favourites of all the generations I’ve driven around here.”
He further explained his stand: “Just the super light downforce. It really is like a step down of generation of car grip-wise.
“Our [tyre] pressures are super, super high. Even though we have 100 points or so less downforce this year, we have much, much higher. Back in the days, we used to run like 60 PSI. And now we’re up to 28 or 26 or something crazy. Maybe here it’s like 24. So it’s very, very high.
“And ultimately, mechanical grip is not what it used to be. And I remember when I was here in 2007, 2008, there was so much more grip. It was even more fun back then.”
Still, Hamilton salvaged: “But it wasn’t terrible. I still had fun. But comparing all the generations, maybe the 2020 was probably the best period for us grip-wise.”
Hamilton is confused on what changed from practice to qualifying
When further questioned about what had changed since free practice and if he had any hypothesis, Hamilton said: “I really, really don’t know.
“I mean, all weekend, I think for us, apart from wanting more downforce globally, I think when we arrived on Thursday, we saw other people with those guys with trick additions to their wing. We didn’t have that, which was a little bit of a surprise.
“But as I said, our pace was looking good. In general, to go quicker, we needed more front end. We got to qualifying and had a lot of front end. And I had to take out like 10 holes of front wing for some reason.
“And so once I took out the 10 holes, the car was a little bit more reasonable by my last lap in Q3. But I needed that balance to start in Q1 and then build upon that, because it’s all about confidence. It’s completely gone in Q1, and then I was trying to pull back what I could.
“So I think I’m relatively happy with P3. Obviously, P1 is what I really wanted, and I really felt that the team deserved to finally get it.”
He added: “And I felt capable. I’m in a really good place with the car. I’m in a really good place with the team.”
Hamilton took the opportunity to address the critics who have judged his driving since he joined the Scuderia in 2025. “And you can see that I have decent pace still in me. There’s no lacking of pace, which I’m really grateful and happy about, regardless of all the negative comments people have made over the times.
“So it’s good. I just keep on putting the work in, and I’ll keep showing up, and I’ll keep delivering.”
“It’s very, very difficult,” says Hamilton on his chances of winning the 2026 Monaco GP
Historically, odds are in the pole sitters’ favour in the Monaco GP. Given that pace is not as important and overtaking becomes almost impossible through the tight streets, qualifying carries much more weight during the weekend.
On his chances for winning the race starting P3 on Sunday, Hamilton lamented: “I mean, you know how these races go, it’s very, very difficult.”
He explained: “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 and we kind of need rain, probably.”
Still, Lewis Hamilton tried to remain optimistic: “But nothing’s impossible.
“If you apply 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.
“So it’s a shame this race is generally often such a procession in the sense of just 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 like one stop because the tyres are so hard and often go so far.”
The Ferrari driver concluded: “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 like in future.
“But I don’t know, 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.”
