Lewis Hamilton Feeling Good About Monza GP Qualifying After Strong Practice Sessions

7-time World Champion and Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton has a good feeling regarding the upcoming qualifying session at the Italian Grand Prix in Monza after putting up strong performances during the practice sessions at the Autodromo Nazionale Monza. Lewis Hamilton finished 7th during the first practice session at Monza but massively improved his timings in the second practice session as he finished 1st just ahead of McLaren's Lando Norris by a margin of three-thousands of a second. 

As for Lewis's teammate George Russel, the British driver could not get a lot done in the practice session as the team mechanics worked on repairing his car after reserve driver Kimi Antonelli had crashed it during the first practice session. 

‘The Car Felt Good From The Start’- Lewis Hamilton 

“It’s been a good day. Generally felt pretty good, it’s obviously the new tarmac that’s been a bit of a challenge and the kerbs, but the car felt good from the start.

Read More: Kimi Antonelli crashes in F1 practice debut for Mercedes at Italian GP

“But going through FP1 there was a lot of graining, people were struggling with tyres – including us – and then we made some good changes over the break, and the car was feeling even better in the [second] session.

“Still some work to do on a few areas and a few things, and I think ultimately [in] the long run so we can go the distance – that’s the challenge at the moment,” commented Hamilton while speaking about how his practice session went. 

When asked about his expectations from the qualifying session on Saturday, Hamilton said, “I’m feeling good. It’s going to be really important the work we do tonight, that’s done back at the factory with the simulator and we just need to tread carefully with the set-up so we don’t put the car too far out of bed like we’ve done in the past.”

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Lewis and Mercedes try to regain the form they had before the mid-season break as the team tries and develop upon a disappointing Dutch Grand Prix last week. 

Russel Comments On Car Problems And Track Changes 

George Russel was asked about an update on Kimi Antonelli, who had crashed in practice 1 while driving Russel's car and his thoughts regarding the race day. To this the British driver responded, “Obviously firstly glad to see Kimi was okay, [it was] a big crash and never nice to see. The mechanics did a great job to get the car ready for FP2, as chances are it was going to be really delayed but [we] still managed to get half an hour in.

“The car seems to be fast – Lewis did a great job, top of the timesheets. But I need to review overnight with my side, I literally got maybe three or four push laps in so not the most productive Friday I’ve ever had.”

When asked about what George Russel thinks about the track changes at Monza especially with a lot of drivers commenting on the new kerbs, George Russel said, "Yeah it felt alright, it felt okay. It is a bit of a strange one, [the track is] resurfaced this year, I think it is ramping in every single lap and there seems to be quite a lot of degradation at the moment.

“But that could potentially change come Sunday, so I think we just need to be alive to the situation and see how it evolves during the race weekend.” 

There has been a lot of conversation around the F1 grid regarding the changes made in the kerbs at Monza and the new problems it causes for the teams and drivers.