Grid penalty gives Hamilton 'more to fight for'

Ferrari's drivers are wearing a special retro blue and white team kit at Monza this weekend in celebration of Niki Lauda's 1975 world championship

Italian Grand Prix

Venue: Monza Dates: 5-7 September Race start: 14:00 BST on Sunday

Coverage: Live commentary of practice and qualifying on BBC Radio 5 Sports Extra and Sports Extra 2 with race on BBC Radio 5 Live; live text updates on BBC Sport website and app

Lewis Hamilton says his five-place grid penalty for the Italian Grand Prix "gives me more to fight for" at his first race at Monza for Ferrari.

The seven-time champion was given his penalty for not slowing sufficiently for yellow flags on the reconnaissance laps to the grid before Sunday's Dutch Grand Prix.

Hamilton and team-mate Charles Leclerc both crashed out at Zandvoort but the Briton's penalty was not decided until after the race.

Hamilton said he was "shocked" to find out he had the penalty.

He added: "I did lift. But to their liking not enough. To get the penalty and (licence) penalty points was pretty hardcore.

"It's going to be challenging this weekend. Qualifying is already so close between us all. Just getting into Q3 is tough, getting into the top five is very tough.

"And then on top of that, to be set back five places is not great when you're going into your first Monza GP with Ferrari. But it gives me more to fight for, and I'm very motivated to make up those places regardless."

Hamilton spent Wednesday at an event in Milan in front of about 7,000 fans, and before that visited the Ferrari factory in Maranello, where fans also gathered outside the gates.

The seven-time world champion said he "still has to pinch myself" about the fact that he is now a Ferrari driver.

He added: "There is clearly so much love for this brand, and to be in Milan in the heart of it all and to see how passionate they all were, it was intense, and I really tried to harness all the positive energy they gave us."

Hamilton has had a difficult start to his Ferrari career, and has yet to stand on a podium for the team, despite a victory in the sprint race at the Chinese Grand Prix.

He is sixth in the drivers' championship with 109 points - 200 fewer than leader Oscar Piastri.

But Hamilton said he felt he and the team were making progress and that he was "on the brighter end of the tunnel".

He added: "This one is really living the dream, moving to race with Ferrari.

"I had the whole of last year to think about it and try to prepare but there are still things you couldn't foresee.

"There has been a lot of adjustment from my side and the team side to accommodate me.

"They've really moved heaven and earth to accommodate me. Obviously, there are cultural differences.

"Fred (Vasseur, the team principal) made a comment that perhaps they underestimated me joining the team and the year we've been faced with in terms of the problems with the car.

"But the harder it is, the better it can make you. It really prepares us for better days and we will be stronger having gone through this tough first six months."

Williams ask for Sainz penalty review

Williams have asked for a right of review into the 10-second penalty Carlos Sainz was given in the Dutch Grand Prix following a collision with Racing Bulls' Liam Lawson.

Sainz described the penalty as "ridiculous" during the race at Zandvoort, and on arriving at Monza on Thursday said that he felt the stewards had a different view after he spoke to them following the race.

Williams said in a statement: "It is important for us to understand how to go racing in future, and we are hopeful of a positive outcome."

Sainz, who finished 13th at Zandvoort, said: "As soon as they got all the evidence right and they looked at the places they needed to take the right decision, it was clear to me that they realised probably the decision taken wasn't the best one."

He added: "The moment you analyse the onboard footage and go into detail, you can clearly see why I should have never got a penalty.

"But the opposite can be applied for the incident with Lewis. Maybe in the Lewis incident, the decision process took too long, and he's now having to suffer a penalty in Monza when he did nothing wrong here.

"He had half an hour during the race to pay a penalty for his infringement. That shows how difficult the process is, how difficult everything is to handle, and why there's always improvements to be made and it needs to be a collaboration between drivers, FIA, GPDA (Grand Prix Drivers' Association), to try and find better solutions.

"Zandvoort exposed why we are not at the right level yet."