Charles Leclerc reveals Ferrari didn’t discuss Lewis Hamilton tow for Italian GP qualifying

Charles Leclerc has revealed that Ferrari did not discuss the possibility of Lewis Hamilton providing the Monegasque driver with a tow during qualifying for the Formula 1 Italian Grand Prix in front of the team’s passionate home crowd.

Hamilton received a five-place grid penalty for his first race at Monza as a Ferrari driver due to a yellow-flag infringement on the reconnaissance laps ahead of the Dutch Grand Prix last week. As a result, the British driver’s best possible outcome from qualifying for the Italian Grand Prix was a sixth-place start.

As he was unable to secure pole position, the possibility of him giving his team-mate Leclerc a tow was widely discussed within the media. But Leclerc has confirmed that this was not put forward as an option within the team.

Leclerc qualified in P4 for the Italian Grand Prix and Hamilton put in the fifth-fastest time, which will see him start from 10th after his penalty is applied.

“I’m happy in a way that I think we’ve maximised the package that we had today and I think I did a really good first lap in Q3,” Leclerc explained to the media.

“Unfortunately, in the second run of Q3 I was a little bit in the front with nobody, or just Yuki [Tsunoda], in front but that makes a big difference here.

Charles Leclerc, Ferrari

Photo by: Simon Galloway / LAT Images via Getty Images

“So there wasn’t much more we could have done, but I think we did a good job maximising the result now, and now we’ll look at tomorrow. I think McLaren and Red Bull are too far ahead for now.”

When asked if there was a possibility of Hamilton giving him a tow, Leclerc explained that “it wasn’t decided that way,” before he confirmed that it was “not really” discussed within the team.

He added: “Yeah, it’s something we’ll discuss with the team now, but obviously we need to… It’s always tricky to get it perfectly right, and Lewis is still fighting to be starting as further up as possible, so yeah, we’ll discuss about it, but I don’t think it’s the main point of today.”

Photos from Italian GP – Practice & Qualifying