Sir Lewis Hamilton secured the 6th position in the 2023 Italian GP, having started from the 8th spot. He finished just one spot behind his teammate, George Russell, who had received a brand-new power unit the previous weekend. The 7-time world champion now boasts 164 championship points, trailing by six points to his former teammate Fernando Alonso, who clinched the 9th position at Monza.
In a post-race interview with Sky Sports F1, Hamilton pinpointed the decisive moment of his race as the swift overtaking of Alonso right after exiting the pits, positioning him in the 10th spot just behind the Spaniard. Starting the race on a harder compound, Hamilton effectively capitalized on his medium tyres during the second stint to ascend to the 6th position, especially as surrounding drivers were equipped with the hard tyre.
Sky Sports F1 : Are you surprised that you could catch the McLaren? Were you expecting to have some pace on them this weekend?
Hamilton : “Well, I mean, I was right up there behind them for most of the race, so I knew I had slightly more pace with them, but with a deficit of a harder tyre. But there was such a big gap I had to catch, I thought once I caught them up my tyres would drop off, but unfortunately theirs were going off too. So I was able to clear… I think what made the race for me was clearing Fernando immediately. That really opened things up.”
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