Lewis Hamilton shares his honest opinion on the controversial moment with Max Verstappen during the F1 Monaco GP qualifying

Lewis Hamilton feels he was off the line when Max Verstappen was on a fast lap and got distracted by the Ferrari driver moving near the racing line. The controversial moment happened in the F1 Monaco GP qualifying when the Red Bull driver was on a fast lap and the seven-time champion became a victim of miscommunication with the team.

On Verstappen's fast lap, Hamilton, who was on a slow-down lap, was first told by his race engineer that the Red Bull driver was on a fast lap. Soon after, however, Hamilton was told Verstappen was on a slow lap, which led to the Brit moving slightly to the racing line and thus distracting the Dutch driver.

On other tracks, the slight misjudgment is something that is not going to have severe consequences, but at a track like Monaco, this could potentially cause a lot of damage.

Talking to Sky Sports after qualifying, Hamilton said:

"Qualifying is so much fun around here. Very difficult to keep out of the way of everybody. I think I was doing a good job of staying out of the way of everyone but then the team said Max was on a fast lap so I was to the left, then they said 'no he's not on a fast lap'. I was just about to get back on power. I accelerated for 10 metres. I was off the line but for sure distracting him."

After the session, the stewards investigated the incident and found Hamilton was indeed impeding Verstappen and handed him a three-place grid penalty.

Lewis Hamilton reflects on his qualifying session

Lewis Hamilton did have a strong qualifying session in general, as the Ferrari was quite strong around Monaco. The seven-time champion was not too far off Charles Leclerc throughout the session, but the gap between the two drivers was evident.

In the end, while Leclerc would qualify in P2, Hamilton would be in P4. Looking back at the session, the Brit said:

"Not the greatest day but the weekend has generally been going quite well. It's felt amazing to be in a Ferrari around this track. The car felt really good. Today in P3 to have that shunt was definitely not helpful. I had a couple of cars ahead and lost some downforce at the rear and lost the back end. The team did an amazing job to recover the car."

Due to the three-place penalty, Hamilton will start the race in P7, which will hurt him as he could get stuck behind some of the slower midfield cars.