"Without the penalty, today's result would have been satisfying," claims Hamilton

Having achieved his best qualifying result with Ferrari after his fourth place at the Monaco Grand Prix, Ferrari's seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton admitted that his final qualifying result would have been satisfying ih he had not crash out of the race.

Ferrari displayed strong pace on Friday, but the Scuderia fractionally lost its competitiveness c ome Saturday. However, Charles Leclerc and Lewis Hamilton bounced back in qualifying to claim P4 and P5, respectively, albeit the seven-time F1 champion will serve a five-place grid penalty for a pre-race infringement from the Dutch Grand Prix.

Reflecting on the qualifying result, Hamilton said: "It's been a positive weekend overall and, without the penalty, today's result would have been satisfying. The team has worked tirelessly and the tifosi have made every day so special with their energy, which has been pushing me on even more.

"Starting from P10 won't be easy and strategy will be key, but we've shown good pace over the long runs and this is a track where overtaking is possible. We'll work hard tonight and hopefully deliver a result that makes the tifosi proud."

Previewing his first Monza race as a Ferrari driver, and with that penalty in mind, Hamilton said: “I’m so excited. Every time I get on track it’s just crazy. You get to Turn 1 and you see the crowd left and right, and they jump to their feet, so the support is like nothing I’ve ever seen.

“We don’t have the pace that we would like to fight the cars ahead. To have fourth and fifth… Charles really feels comfortable mostly in this car, as he’s been here for such a long time and does a great job, but I’m grateful that I could at least be there."

Reflecting on his penalty that wil put him five place back at Monza, Hamilton said: “Obviously this penalty puts me further back, but I’ll try and work my way through.”