Lewis Hamilton started right at the back of the grid at the Italian GP in Monza. To get points on the board from P19 is an enormous task, but one must not forget, that here was a 7-time world champion.

Hamilton came close to a collision right at the start. Luckily, he took the escape road and avoided a premature end to his weekend. Although he did not make contact with any car, he apologized to the team for the damage to the car.

He was referring to the damage done to the car at Spa earlier in the season. Lewis tangled with Fernando Alonso, which resulted in a DNF for the Briton. Moreover, his power unit suffered some major damages which still have not been fixed by the team at Mercedes. Mercedes were eventually forced into bringing in a new power unit for Monza resulting in a grid penalty for Hamilton.

It is possible if Lewis had not been penalized, he could have had a podium finish at Monza.

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While Lewis did make the most of his abilities to finish P5, it was also his tire strategy that helped.

Lewis Hamilton’s Tire Strategy at Monza

Hamilton started off with the Medium compound tires, unlike eventual podium finishers – Max Verstappen, Charles Leclerc, and George Russell. Notably, his tire and pitstop strategy was different from teammate Russell’s.

Hamilton took a single pitstop strategy, starting with the Mediums and ending with the C4 Softs. As Technical Director at Mercedes Mike Elliot explained, it was a strategy hinging on Mercedes’ trust in the car. They had the quicker car amongst those on the back of the grid. They would not need to rely on the Soft to get ahead. As the Mediums would last longer, they could climb higher than on the Soft, and later maintain position with the help of a pitstop.

Hamilton enjoyed his performance at Monza. In his own words, “It’s a thousand times more enjoyable, battling with people…And so starting today, just having those battles is way more fun than starting first and pulling away. It’s a different challenge. But I much prefer the battling with people.”

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This strategy worked out well for Lewis and he could have finished higher had the race not been marred by a safety car in the end.