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Why Lewis Hamilton wasn't completely happy in Monaco - Former F1 champ Damon Hill

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Race winner Lewis Hamilton of Great Britain and Mercedes GP looks on.
Race winner Lewis Hamilton of Great Britain and Mercedes GP looks on.
Photo by Xavier Bonilla

Damon Hill has admitted he's "never been completely convinced" that compatriot Lewis Hamilton enjoys racing at Monaco, despite the Brit winning races there on three occasions.

The 2021 edition of the race was a poor one for the Mercedes man as he only qualified in P7 and finished the race in the same position.

Afterwards, he made no attempt to hide how he felt about it from an enjoyment perspective.

"I'm glad the race is over as it was the longest race, it was so long," he said.

"I've said it time and time again: [it] doesn't [matter] what position you're in, this track is not fun to race on, can't overtake. Of course, it's great winning, but even when you're winning and far ahead it's also boring.

"I'm sure for Max it was a pretty chilled afternoon for him. For me, I'll switch off. Weekend's done – I probably won't re-watch this race, I might watch the highlights to get an understanding of where I lost potentially three places for example, otherwise put my focus on something else.

"Luckily I have lots of other things I do so try and turn towards something else."

He hasn't always had such a bad time on the streets of Monte Carlo, tasting victory there on three occasions. Only four drivers have done so more.

Despite that though, Hill isn't sure that the seven-time World Champion has ever enjoyed the race.

"Drivers have 'days off' and I've never been completely convinced that Lewis likes Monaco," he said on the F1 Nation podcast.

"Nico [Rosberg] referred to this as well, it's something about Monaco and we spoke about this, that some drivers take to this track well, they love it.

"Lando Norris, he loves driving that car, loved going around Monaco, he did a fantastic job and got every ounce out of that car, it was brilliant, just like Max did.

"But with Lewis, it's always looked to me like he's not completely happy in Monaco. He said at one point that he was over-driving the car.

"When you never hear him talk about his performance in such basic terms – it's almost like a rookie mistake – you'd think Nikita Mazepin is over-driving the car at the minute, not Lewis Hamilton.

"On the first day, he nearly always overdoes it, he drives quite raggedy on the first day – so that would be the Thursday. But he never got that flow going, I don't think, this weekend, and manage to home in on it."

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