Hamilton “finally felt connection” with Ferrari’s F1 car after brilliant comeback drive at Imola

F1 Grand Prix, GP Emilia-Romagna, Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari

On the back of a tough qualifying session on Saturday, Lewis Hamilton displayed impressive race pace and with some good fortune, he crossed the finish line fourth at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

Ferrari endured a difficult qualifying day on home turf at Imola as Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton ended up only 11th and 12th respectively.

After a poor qualifying, the team took an aggressive approach to the race, splitting the strategies between the two drivers, with Leclerc starting from 11th on Medium tyres and Hamilton from 12th on Hards.

The Monegasque passed Isack Hadjar and Pierre Gasly ealy on, and he took an aggressive approach by pitting for hards on Lap 10. The move paid off and he was able to undercut several cars, getting up to eighth, thanks also to a strong pace.

The Virtual Safety Car was required on lap 29 when Esteban Ocon parked at the side of the track, and Ferrari brought its teo drivers in for fresh tyres. At the restart, Hamilton was seventh and Leclerc tenth. On fresh rubber, the SF-25s passed both the Aston Martins, Kimi Antonelli and Hadjar, rapidly moving up to fifth and sixth places.

However, there wasanother interruption on Lap 46 when Antonelli had to park at the side of the track in a position from which it was difficult to have the car removed and so the Safety Car was brought into play.

Hamilton came in again for a set of hards, rejoining the action in seventh place. By contrast, Leclerc stayed out in fourth place as he had no more sets of medium or hards available.

At the restart, Hamilton made good use of his new tyres to pass George Russell and set off in pursuit of Alex Albon, who was fighting with Leclerc. As the Monegasque and the Thai driver were fighting hard, Hamilton managed to slip past Albon when the Williams driver cut the first chicane, which allowed Hamilton to slip past.

The seven-time F1 champion then got ahead of his team-mate to take fourth place. For the last two laps, he then pursued third placed Oscar Piastri who was on old tyres, but the Australian was able to hang on. By contrast, Leclerc was asked by the team to give back position to Albon after the move at the first chicane, which was under investigation, as any penalty could have cost him several places.

Reflecting on his feeling behind the wheel of his SF25, Hamilton added that the Imola F1 race was the only time apart from his victory in the F1 Shanghai Sprint that he felt synergy with his car.

“There was a lot of pressure on us as a team, with struggling through the year so far with the car and particularly with our Qualifying, so to have such a strong race, to be moving forwards, making ground, it was such a great feeling.

“I would say for me, I don’t remember the last time I had a race like that where you’re moving forwards. I’m sure there was one maybe last year, but this one’s different obviously because I’m in the red car and I haven’t done that yet, so to finally have that connection, that synergy with the car today and progressing was a really great feeling.”

After a disappointing start to his Ferrari F1 career, the seven-time F1 champion stated that he has finally found a better setup which presented a solution for some of his latest issues.

“I don’t want to jinx it so, for sure, there’s lots of positives to take away from today and we had pace, so we really need to dissect and understand where and why.

“I did think we would make an improvement this weekend with something we’re trying to fix, and I think there’s more to come, but the set-up was really good.

“The car felt pretty mega set-up wise, and the strategists, the team did a fantastic job with strategy calls, with the pit stops, so overall mega job from Ferrari.”

Despite the stellar race pace in the Imola F1 race, Hamilton urged Ferrari to find solutions for its one-lap woes.

“Today I felt much more at one with the car, something I’d been chasing since the Sprint in China. Everything came together: the strategy, the pit stops, the balance, it all worked in harmony and allowed us to recover strongly from our qualifying position.

“There’s still work to do, especially over one lap, but if we can keep building on days like this, we’ll be in the mix for podiums. Grazie mille tifosi: your support means the world and I hope we made you proud today,“ concluded Hamilton.