2
Lewis Hamilton has denied that he had an easy route to pole position for the British Grand Prix on Sunday, insisting teammate Valtteri Bottas was stiff competition for him.
At the end of Q3, Hamilton secured his 91st career pole position, beating Bottas by three-tenths of a second. Max Verstappen in third place was over a second behind.
Mercedes has been unchallenged this year, winning the opening three rounds of the season, with the gap to its rivals at Silverstone only further highlighting its advantage in modern Formula 1.
However, Hamilton says his route to pole position for his home race was not easy, with Bottas pushing him throughout the weekend.
“Ultimately, obviously there's a relatively big gap between us and third place. But it doesn't matter at the end of the day, Valtteri is pushing me right to the end, to the limit,” Hamilton said.
“He's been doing such a fantastic job all weekend, I made some changes coming into qualifying and it was worse... so it was a real struggle out there.
“This track is just awesome, with a gust of wind you have a headwind, tailwind, crosswind at different parts of the circuit. So it's like juggling balls on a moving plate at high speed.”
Hamilton suffered a scare during qualifying as on his opening hot lap in Q2, he spun on the exit of Luffield, which resulted in a red flag due to the gravel he spat onto the surface.
The six-time world champion says he managed to compose himself ahead of Q3 and set two clean laps to make sure of pole position.
“Obviously we had that spin,” Hamilton said. “Qualifying is all about confidence and building. Damn, I had that spin, I was already down in the first section every lap and I don't know how, some deep breaths, I managed to compose myself.
“Q3 started off the right way, it still wasn't perfect, the first lap, but it still was a really clean lap, and the second one even better. It never gets old, that's for sure.”
A rare misstep from @LewisHamilton in Q2 ?#BritishGP ?? #F1 pic.twitter.com/uHmUnq26aY
— Formula 1 (@F1) August 1, 2020
Awesome battle to be 1st or 2nd. Anyway, let’s all play attention to the real race behind the Mercs. That should be a good race.
Absolutely, if Mercedes were not on the grid this would really be an ultra competitive championship. The gaps behind Mercedes are very tight.
Grand Prix of BelgiumLocal time
Grand Prix of BelgiumLocal time
Bahrain International Circuit - Winter testing
Bahrain
Bahrain
Bahrain International Circuit
Bahrain
Bahrain International Circuit
Saudi Arabia
Jeddah Street Circuit
Australia
Albert Park
Azerbaijan
Baku City Circuit
United States of America
Miami International Autodrome
Monaco
Monte Carlo
Spain
Circuit de Catalunya
Canada
Gilles Villeneuve
Austria
Red Bull Ring
United Kingdom
Silverstone
Hungary
Hungaroring
Belgium
Spa-Francorchamps
Netherlands
Circuit Zandvoort
Italy
Monza
Singapore
Marina Bay Street Circuit
Japan
Circuit Suzuka
United States of America
Circuit of the Americas
Mexico
Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez
Brazil
Interlagos
United States of America
Las Vegas Street Circuit
United Arab Emirates
Yas Marina Circuit
454,325 comments on Mercedes
64 members have this team as their favourite
Tweets about Lewis Hamilton
584,998 comments on Mercedes 54 members have this team as their favourite Tweets about Mercedes
G. Zhou
RogerF1
Posts: 501
Awesome battle to be 1st or 2nd. Anyway, let’s all play attention to the real race behind the Mercs. That should be a good race.