'Tough one to swallow' – Hamilton reflects on 'devastating' Italian Grand Prix for Ferrari

Lewis Hamilton admits that finishing only sixth in the Italian Grand Prix is a "tough one to swallow", as Ferrari endured a difficult home race.

The Tifosi had high hopes ahead of Sunday's 53-lap race at Monza, with Hamilton starting fourth and directly behind Ferrari team mate, Charles Leclerc.

But things began to unravel as early as the first corner, with Hamilton moving up the inside of Leclerc, only to find himself in the gravel on the exit of Turn 2 which dropped the seven-time World Champion to the fringes of the top 10.

"Well I ended up P10 or something. There's not really much to say. We'll take it offline," said Hamilton when asked what impact the moment had on his race.

Leclerc's race came to an end at the final corner on Lap 2, the Monegasque driver suffering an over correction before hitting the barrier hard which brought out a red flag.

On the Hamilton incident, Leclerc said: "With Lewis it was a way too close into Turn 1 and unfortunately in Turn 2 – I don't know if we had contact or whatsoever.

"I was quite a lot on the inside curve and tried to make the corner, which I didn't do it tight enough, and then I obviously only saw in the mirrors what happened which is never what you want between between two cars of the same team."

At the restart, Hamilton started on the medium tyre and battled Oscar Piastri's McLaren for P4 initially, but unlike other drivers who were running on the medium-walled Pirelli tyre, he did not pit under a mid-race Virtual Safety Car.

It meant Hamilton lost further positions to the recovering Kimi Antonelli and Max Verstappen, as well as Lando Norris before reaching the chequered flag a distant sixth.

"A bit devastating. Tough one to swallow. Lost a lot of points and ultimately couldn't keep a Mercedes engine behind. They were just out and out quicker," said Hamilton.

"I think we probably chose the wrong tyre. Whether that really would have made much difference, maybe we would have been able to hold onto them a bit longer but they just kept flying past us. They were just quicker today."