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Lewis Hamilton basked in an “unbelievable” connection with the Ferrari F1 fans after recovering from an awful qualifying to finish fourth in his first home race for the Scuderia.
The seven-time world champion admitted he was “devastated” after being eliminated in the second part of qualifying on Saturday to line up 12th on the grid, one place behind team-mate Charles Leclerc.
But the 40-year-old showed great pace amid a chaotic Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, fighting through a virtual and full safety car to come home just one place adrift of the podium.
Hamilton was thrilled to offer some joy to the 242,000 fans at Imola, almost all of whom were backing the Scuderia.
“It’s been incredible, what an amazing experience,” Hamilton said.
“Already just like on the drivers’ parade lap, all the drivers were all doing their normal talking, but I really wanted to see what… I even took a picture of where there’s a memorial of Ayrton (Senna).
“Just a sea of red everywhere. It was just really very reminiscent of when I was growing up watching, sitting at home on my couch, with a bacon sandwich watching Michael Schumacher here racing with Ferrari and seeing the connection he had with Ferrari.
“It was quite an incredible experience to think that I’m now here in one of the two Ferraris and having that connection with such a passionate group of people. It’s unbelievable.
“The love that the Italian fans have – for Silverstone it’s a connection more so with me, being a Brit, which is super special and I love it.
“This one is like, you can just see how passionate people are for Ferrari. The red car comes and they get so excited, ‘red, red!'”
Hamilton dropped a place on the opening lap but ran a long first stint on the hard tyres, finding himself seventh after the virtual safety car was triggered on lap 29.
Moves on Kimi Antonelli and Isack Hadjar lifted Hamilton to fifth and, after pitting when the full safety car came out for Antonelli’s exit, he moved ahead of team-mate Leclerc to come home fourth.
Leclerc finished sixth following a late tussle with Alex Albon and Hamilton sees positives for Ferrari ahead of next weekend’s Monaco Grand Prix.
“I’ve always loved when you’re fighting from further back and coming through. That’s how I started off as a kid,” he added.
“That’s always such a better feeling than starting first and finishing first.
“An absolutely mega race and so many positives to take from it.
“We have just got to unlock the potential in qualifying. If we had qualified better, we would have been fighting for a podium.
“I’ve got some ideas that I’m going to try and apply next week.
“People have been a little bit reluctant to do it, I think because we’ve had lots of other things to focus on, but I’m hoping next week we can find something to unlock some more performance.”
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