Scuderia Ferrari HP driver Lewis Hamilton finished the Italian Grand Prix in sixth place while Charles Leclerc retired in the early stages of the race.

The Englishman spent a long time fighting in the leading group, but found it particularly difficult to compete with his main rivals on the straights at a circuit as power-sensitive as Monza. As for Charles, he went off track on the second lap while battling in the top four. He crashed very heavily into the barriers at the Alboreto corner, but fortunately he was unhurt. After undergoing precautionary checks at the Medical Centre, he returned to the team's motorhome. Therefore, for the Scuderia, the result at its home race did not live up to expectations, on a weekend made special nonetheless by the celebrations dedicated to Michael Schumacher, 30 years on from his first victory at Monza.

The two SF-26s started from third and fourth on the grid. At the first chicane, the two cars came very close together and, to avoid making contact, Lewis ran slightly into the gravel, losing several positions. On the second lap, following a series of battles, Charles dropped from second to fourth and then lost control of the car on the approach to the Alboreto corner, hitting the barriers, which brought out the red flag. At the second start, Hamilton, lining up eighth on Medium tyres, produced an impressive recovery drive that took him as high as fourth. As the race progressed, Lewis continued to fight with the cars in the leading group, but he struggled on the straights and, towards the end, he was losing tyre performance which meant that he was unable to defend his position. Hamilton gave it everything he had to finish the Grand Prix in sixth place.

The team will analyse in detail the data gathered over the Monza weekend and continue working on the areas where improvements are needed. The next round of the season is already next week, with the Spanish Grand Prix taking place at the new Madrid circuit from 11 to 13 September.

Lewis Hamilton: I know how hard everyone has worked to bring the latest updates to the car and I'm grateful for all the effort that continues to go in, both at the track and back at the factory. We knew we would be losing some performance on the straights and that made the race quite difficult for us. We would have liked to achieve a better result given all the work that has gone into the car, but we'll take the learnings from this weekend, regroup and keep working. The team will keep pushing and we'll look to come back stronger at the next race.

Charles Leclerc: It's not the way we wanted our weekend to finish and we have to turn the page and look ahead to Madrid next week.

A huge thank you to all our tifosi who have supported us here at our home race. We will make sure to come back stronger.

Fred Vasseur: We knew that this race would be challenging, especially in terms of our top speed, and that made it difficult for Lewis to fight and overtake the cars around him. Regarding Charles, on the second lap he was side by side with Oscar (Piastri) going into the last corner and went slightly onto the dirty side of the track, which was enough for him to lose the car and hit the barriers. It was a big impact, so the most important thing is that Charles is okay.

Of course, we are disappointed that we could not give our tifosi the result we wanted after the incredible energy and support they have shown us throughout the weekend. I'm very happy for Kimi (Antonelli): this is a very important moment for him, and he deserves it. Our focus now immediately switches to next weekend and the new Madrid circuit.