Hamilton and Leclerc explain what went wrong for Ferrari in Italian GP qualifying

Ferrari had started the Italian Grand Prix weekend with the hope of challenging for a first Formula 1 pole of 2026, but faced difficulty in getting out of Q2 during qualifying.

Lewis Hamilton got into the top 10 by the skin of his teeth, setting a lap good enough for 10th and managing to stay ahead of Gabriel Bortoleto by just 0.001s to break into the final stage of qualifying. His team-mate Charles Leclerc was ninth, just 0.007s ahead, and both were over 0.6s from Q2 pacesetter Kimi Antonelli.

After that squeaky-bum moment, Ferrari enjoyed a slightly better time of it in the final stage of qualifying - and Leclerc was 0.075s away from George Russell after the first lap. Yet, the team was unable to show the progression of its rivals; Russell improved on his lap, but was overcome by Pierre Gasly's surprise run to pole position.

Leclerc stayed fourth with Hamilton taking fifth in the session; both will move up to the second row as Oscar Piastri was handed a three-place grid penalty for impeding Liam Lawson during Q2. 

Explaining his own session, Hamilton stated that he had initially been happy with the set-up of the SF-26 chassis and made very few changes from FP3 to Q1. Although the car was "solid" in that first stage of qualifying, Hamilton only needing one timed lap to book his place in Q2, Ferrari began to go backwards. 

"We did a great job overnight. I was really happy with the car and didn't change anything going into qualifying for the first time ever," Hamilton said. "I felt confident, hit the first lap in Q1, felt solid.

"And then I waited, to use that tyre again for Q2. And we were supposed to do a push, cool, cool, push. But because everyone was waiting, and Charles didn't want to go out first, we had to wait, wait, wait, and then we only got one push. It made it pretty challenging for us."

Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images

Hamilton was visibly left behind the pack during the opening run of the session having been slow to get out of the garage, recounting that his mechanics hadn't put the tyres on until quite late. This cost him a tow on the first run, and he was 0.8s down on Russell's opener at that stage.

He received a tow from Leclerc on his second effort, yielding a 0.75s improvement. Later asked if he was happy with Ferrari's efforts, Hamilton did not answer the question directly - but noted that "Pierre did a great job. Looking from a distance, it looked like they worked really well as a team".

"My Q3, I didn't have any wheels on the car, basically, and everyone left whilst my engine was running, but I didn't. I went out like 25 seconds behind everyone. And that just put me out of rhythm," he said.

"When you're following another car, when you're in that tow, you arrive much faster, so the braking zones are different. And then when you're on your own, you lose the tow.

"I don't really fully understand why we were lacking so much pace in Q2, because we should have had pace like we did in the first one, but everyone just advanced forward, so I don't know if that's tyre pressure. I'm not quite sure, I need to look into that.

"I think at the end, the team was solely focused on trying to get an equal tow for each driver. And we just, as I said, we just stumbled."

Leclerc added that Ferrari had expected to see a gap around Monza. The team's new engine had addressed some of its concerns around its power deficit to Mercedes and Red Bull, but was still over 10km/h slower on the straights compared to the Alpine and the Mercedes cars.

Leclerc's fastest Q3 lap versus Russell

Photo by: Autosport

On his final lap, Leclerc concentrated his deployment on the exit of the Variante Ascari, but this was only enough to put his top speed on a par with Russell. Hamilton's GPS data shows likewise.

The Monegasque suggested that the Prancing Horse was suffering with energy management issues through the session, something that had not been apparent during the practice sessions. 

In comparing Leclerc's lap in Q2 versus that of Q3, the improvement in speed coming out of the Ascari corner is missing during his effort in the previous stage. It stands to reason that the Monegasque had less energy to use there in Q2, creating a 5km/h deficit. 

"We have been far from perfect during this qualifying," Leclerc explained. "We've had quite a lot of issues in the background. It's a very demanding and difficult track to optimise everything power unit wise with driving here in Monza. But I think we've been too sub-optimal, and eventually we paid the price.

"It was more related to the energy management. And this is something we'll have to look at because we didn't have any of those issues coming before qualifying. And so, to start dealing with them during qualifying is not ideal.

"I started my last lap in Q2 with the new tyres, which is where the biggest problem on the battery was. And so, my lap time was nowhere. So, I was kind of hoping that the first lap time would go through, which it did. But yeah, it wasn't so nice to be in this position, especially here in Monza.

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari

Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images

"I expect us to be stronger [in the race]. but it's also true that in the straight we are going to struggle tomorrow. And we are going to be quite exposed to the others. But we are fast in corners. So, I hope that this helps us to stay with them."

Although Ferrari hadn't been able to unlock enough one-lap pace to challenge Gasly and Russell, its second-row lock-out (thanks to Piastri's 'assistance') has given the team some hope of a solid result at its home race and a "fighting chance" to battle with Russell for victory.

Sunday's race is expected to feature the 'yo-yo' racing seen at the more energy-poor circuits through 2026, and thus Ferrari will need to get on top of its energy management to have a chance of dethroning Gasly and Russell at the front of the field. 

"It's definitely positive to progress. That puts us in fighting chance, hopefully, with George. That's one Mercedes up front, so hopefully that gives us a chance to work as a team to try and [get to the front]," Hamilton added. 

"George has the fastest car. That's clear. Particularly if you see his Mercedes. I think we've done well to be ahead of a Mercedes [engine] and the fastest engine out there in Max [Verstappen's car] is behind, but we're lacking on straights still, and that's just the way it is.

"We're at a point in the year where 59 points is a huge deficit to recover from, especially when Mercedes continue to be the leaders in speed. So we do have to work as a team.  But all I can do is just try to arrive [on Sunday] and do the best job I can."

Additional reporting by Ronald Vording