“It’s definitely very, very frustrating, naturally, but it is what it is. It’s kind of the weekend done and I’ll have to move on to next week [at Monza].”
With qualifying coming after a trio of mixed-weather and disrupted practice sessions, Hamilton added: “I think the rain definitely made it tricky in the morning [in FP3], not to see where the car balance was.
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“I think ultimately, if everyone had had a dry P3, we probably would have done a bit of a better job with the set-up, maybe, for qualifying, but still, I think just [the] performance wasn’t there from my side.”
Meanwhile, Friday practice pace-setter Russell was pleased to come away with a second-row grid slot after surviving a scare of his own in Q1 that forced him to pull a lap out of the bag on his final run to the chequered flag.
“It’s always a little bit difficult psychologically when you go out there and it’s just not feeling as you expect, and you’re down the order looking likely to, or potentially getting knocked out of Q1,” he said.
