Lewis Hamilton is wary of being jumped by the two Ferraris at the start of the Italian Grand Prix after taking pole position.
With Mercedes dominant in qualifying, Hamilton took his 11th pole of the season at Monza, edging out Kimi Raikkonen and Sebastian Vettel by 0.234s. However, with Ferrari having been strong at the start in recent races - jumping in to the lead from third and fifth in Hungary - Hamilton is aware he will be under threat on Sunday.
“It’s always a great feeling getting pole, as Sebastian knows and the same with Kimi," Hamilton said. "I think I’ve had a couple of poles here but it’s not always been good to me, last year I think was not such an easy getaway but it didn’t really matter for the race.
"It’s a long run down to Turn 1, these guys are good off the line so we’ll try to do our best tomorrow. But our race pace has tended to be quite strong so I hope that we repeat that tomorrow.”
And Hamilton says he enjoyed the battle with Ferrari for pole position, but praised Mercedes for its power unit upgrade which kept him ahead.
"These guys did a great job, they’re incredibly close, it’s good to see we have a good fight. The car has been feeling good all weekend, the mechanics have done a fantastic job on both sides of the garage. Big thanks to the guys back at the factory who made improvements to the reliability of the engine and to bring that here is a big step for us."
Hamilton holds off Ferrari challenge for 11th pole of the season
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