Lewis Hamilton left with “empty feeling” after challenging F1 Monaco Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton has admitted he’s been left with an “empty feeling” following a challenging F1 Monaco Grand Prix.

The seven-time world champion finished a distant fifth in Monaco.

After qualifying fourth, his race was made tougher after receiving a three-place grid penalty for impeding Max Verstappen.

Hamilton jumped Isack Hadjar and Fernando Alonso through the pit stop phase but lost a significant amount of time in traffic.

In the end, Hamilton finished nearly 50 seconds behind teammate Charles Leclerc.

Speaking to French TV after the race, Hamilton said: “It’s like an empty feeling really. We move forwards. To come into the weekend where you hoped to do better.

“You leave on a bit of a low. Luckily, we have another race next week.”

Hamilton was also frustrated by a lack of clear radio messages from race engineer Riccardo Adami.

Hamilton revealed he didn’t know what was going on during the race, declaring “it was absolutely not clear”.

“No, no it was absolutely not clear. I didn’t know hardly anything through most of the race,” he added.

Hamilton felt “very alone” out there

Hamilton’s indirect criticism of his race engineer continued in a separate interview.

Hamilton said he had “no idea” what position he was in or “when to push”.

“Naturally, I want to say there’s nothing to take from it but there’s always something to take from days like today, difficult days,” Hamilton explained.

“At least we went forwards. Charles got a good result with second. Not quite sure why I lost so much pace. I didn’t most of the time know where I was in the race. Honestly, most of the time I didn’t know where I was in the race, I had no idea what position, what I needed to do to progress, when to push, when not to push, I was just in no man’s land. I definitely felt very alone out there today.”

The race as a whole proved to be entertaining with very few overtakes.

Hamilton described the race in Monaco as “the least enjoyable” of the season.

“It’s horrible, it’s the least enjoyable race of the entire year,” Hamilton concluded.

“It doesn’t even matter, even if you’re in the lead, it’s still not enjoyable. It’s nice at the end, but the actual race itself, qualifying laps were great, it’s great through the weekend, amazing spectacle and fans and everything, but you have to race, you just can’t wait for it to end.

“It really is like, when you come across the line, you’re like, thank God, I can’t wait till next week.”