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Lewis Hamilton had no answer to the pace of Mercedes driver Kimi Antonelli during Sunday’s Monaco Grand Prix.
Antonelli was well over half a minute clear of Hamilton when Lance Stroll’s crash brought out the safety car and bunched up the pack.
Hamilton’s Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc crashed at the restart, and the stewards quickly red-flagged the race to clear up the damaged track at turn 19. But even a standing start wasn’t enough for the seven-time world champion to deny Antonelli.
Kimi Antonelli takes his FIFTH straight win at the Monaco Grand Prix? Where has this dominance come from?
Photo Credit: Scuderia Ferrari HP Press Office, Mercedes-Benz Group AG, Oracle Red Bull Racing / Red Bull Content Pool
Lewis Hamilton questions Ferrari’s development in Mercedes fight
Antonelli stretched his lead over Hamilton back to 6.2 seconds in the short eight-lap dash to the line after the red flag.
It was an ominous display of pace from Mercedes and the championship leader on a weekend where they weren’t expected to have the best car.
Indeed, Ferrari were seen as the favourites for Monaco, a circuit that seemed likely to reward the strengths of their chassis and hide the limitations of their engine.
But speaking to Antonelli in the cooldown afterwards, Hamilton was heard describing Ferrari’s aerodynamics as ‘basic’ compared to Mercedes. He also hinted at a relative lack of development since it was first launched.
Ferrari introduced a major upgrade at the Miami GP last month, while Mercedes debuted a similar package in Montreal one race later.
“Your car is… You look at our car,” Hamilton explained. “It’s so basic. It doesn’t look a lot different from our launch car.”
What a wild Monaco Grand Prix! Were there too many penalties, or did you enjoy the chaos?
Antonelli replied: “Today it was a beast.”
After Saturday’s qualifying session, Hamilton had expressed ‘surprise’ that Ferrari weren’t as innovative as their rivals with their Monaco-spec wing.
The FIA banned active aerodynamics for this weekend for safety reasons, and Mercedes were among the teams to exploit the ruling by fitting a ‘mini wing’, apparently worth around half a tenth per lap.
“I think when we arrived on Thursday we saw other people, those guys with trick additions to their wing, we didn’t have that, which was a little bit of a surprise,” Hamilton said.
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