Lewis Hamilton left “absolutely furious” with qualifying ‘weakness’

Lewis Hamilton says he is “absolutely furious” with his qualifying performance at the F1 Italian Grand Prix.

The seven-time world champion qualified sixth on the grid for Sunday’s race at Monza and was just 0.186 seconds adrift of pole position. He was outpaced by teammate George Russell, who claimed third.

Hamilton, who had topped two of the three practice sessions, was adamant he could have challenged for at least the front row of the grid but conceded he had “no one to blame but myself”.

“Absolutely furious. I could have been on pole,” Hamilton told Sky. “I could have been at least on the front row. I didn’t do the job in the end.

“I lost a tenth and a half into Turn 1 and 2 and then I lost another tenth at the last corner. No one to blame but myself.

“Qualifying has been my weakness for a minute now and I can’t figure it out. I’ll keep trying.”

When asked how he will get over the disappointment and reset for Sunday’s grand prix, Hamilton replied: “Probably a little bit of kicking myself over the next couple of hours.

Ultimately I’ve got to move forwards. We have a good race car, the team have done an amazing job this weekend.

“The car has been feeling much better than the last race and the team deserve better. Maybe they’ll get that with Kimi [Antonelli].”

It marks the 12th time in 16 races this season that Hamilton has been outqualifed by Russell. 

Hamilton believes he has no chance of fighting for victory in Sunday's grand prix. 

"The chance of fighting for a race win is out the window and tomorrow I’ve got to try and recover as much as I can and see if I can get past the Ferraris and try challenging and get to a podium," he added.