“Push now. This is our race!” That was the order given to Lewis Hamilton from Ferrari in Monaco, and he had no clue what his team meant.

And a look through the data did not provide any further clues for Hamilton, who after successfully overcutting Isack Hadjar and Fernando Alonso, raced on to a lonely P5 result around the streets of Monte Carlo.

Lewis Hamilton baffled in Monaco: Ferrari message unclear?

Starting P7 on the grid in Monaco, Hamilton was able to improve two spots by the time the chequered flag flew, though over 50 seconds behind winner Lando Norris, and 30 seconds back from Max Verstappen in P4, it was a cruise in “no man’s land” as Hamilton termed it.

The seven-time World Champion was able to keep out of the team tactics that unfolded behind with a new mandatory two-stop rule tried out for the first time in Monaco on Sunday.

Both Racing Bulls and Williams utilised a slow-moving rear-gunner, much to the frustration of Mercedes, and it was a tactic which paid off as Hadjar, Liam Lawson, Alex Albon and Carlos Sainz all finished in the points.

Asked for his thoughts on the two-stop rule, Hamilton told Sky F1: “I can’t comment on the rest of the race. For me, I was kind of in the middle of nowhere.

“Obviously, with the penalty that I had [a three-place grid drop for impeding Verstappen], I started seventh, I was behind two cars for some time, and then managed to clear them, and then I was kind of just in no man’s land after that.

“I think the gap was quite relatively big, and I was really not racing anyone. I needed a Safety Car or something to come into play, but it didn’t happen.”

At the point that Ferrari were going for the ultimately successful overcut on Hadjar and Alonso in the first pit-stop phase, Hamilton’s race engineer Riccardo Adami had looked to boost his driver by telling him to “push now. This is our race!”

Only, Hamilton was at a loss for what Adami meant by that message.

Key stats after the Monaco GP

👉 F1 2025: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates

👉 F1 points all-time rankings: Where do Hamilton, Verstappen and Alonso feature?

There remains some communication kinks to iron out for Hamilton and Adami after the former’s blockbuster move to Ferrari, with the duo not quite on the same page again later in the race, as Hamilton asked for the gap to Verstappen, Piastri, Leclerc and Norris ahead.

Hamilton had asked Adami if he was still a minute behind that quarter, but did not receive a straight answer.

“You’re not answering the question,” Hamilton therefore came back with. “It doesn’t really matter I guess, I’m just asking if I’m a minute behind or?”

And in reflection on the radio demand of “push now. This is our race!”, Hamilton claimed: “It wasn’t very clear.

“The information wasn’t exactly that clear. I didn’t really understand.

“‘This is our race.’ What am I… I didn’t know what I was fighting for. Am I fighting for the next spot ahead or?

“But in actual fact, when I look at the data, I wasn’t anywhere near any of the guys up front. So I used up my tyres a lot in that respect, in that moment, but I was so far away from them anyway.”

Hamilton’s Ferrari team-mate Leclerc secured a runner-up result on home soil, as the gap in the Drivers’ Championship between the Ferrari racers grows to 16 points, in Leclerc’s favour.

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