Lewis Hamilton irritated with Ferrari F1 race engineer: ‘Are you upset with me?’

Lewis Hamilton rose two places to finish fifth in the Monaco Grand Prix but was irritated with engineer Riccardo Adami over team radio towards the end of the race.

Hamilton qualified in fourth but was handed a three-place grid drop for impeding Max Verstappen, meaning he started the race in seventh.

Yet Hamilton’s Ferrari showed decent pace and, amid the chaotic two-stop regulation, the Brit leapfrogged Isack Hadjar and Fernando Alonso ahead of him to finish in the top-five. However, he finished nearly a minute behind race winner Lando Norris.

Towards the end of the 78-lap race, Hamilton asked Adami: “Are they still ahead by a minute?”

When Adami told his diver that those ahead were simply “fighting”, an agitated Hamilton replied: “You’re not answering the question. But it doesn’t really matter, I’m just asking, am I a minute behind or?”

Adami then informed Hamilton: “48 seconds.”

After the race finished, Hamilton seemed confused over team radio, asking Adami: “Are you upset with me?”

No reply was played out on the television broadcast, though Adami could have left his communication channel by that point.

Hamilton’s early races with Ferrari have been characterised by communication breakdowns with Adami, formerly race engineer to Carlos Sainz and Sebastian Vettel at Ferrari.

Elaborating further on the race afterwards, Hamilton told Sky Sports F1: "I can’t comment on the rest of the race, for me I was in the middle of nowhere.

"I started seventh, was behind two cars for some time, managed to clear them, then I was in no man's land after that.

“The gap was relatively big and I was not racing anyone. I needed a Safety Car or something but it didn't happen. It was pretty straightforward from there.

"The information wasn't that clear. I didn't know what I was fighting for. Was I fighting for the next spot ahead? I wasn't anywhere near the guys in front."

Hamilton’s teammate Charles Leclerc finished second, with McLaren’s Oscar Piastri in third and Max Verstappen coming home fourth.

The next race of the season takes place in Barcelona with the Spanish Grand Prix (30 May – 1 June).