Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton expressed his delight after he claimed the 63rd pole position of his Formula 1 career during qualifying for the Chinese Grand Prix.
Hamilton was only fourth during the sole dry practice session on Saturday morning but propelled himself to the front in Q3, claiming provisional pole, despite a wayward moment through Turn 11.
Hamilton improved on his second Q3 run to log a time of 1:31.678 – the fastest ever lap of the Shanghai circuit – as he finished 0.186s clear of Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel.
“It’s been an interesting weekend so far without testing yesterday,” he said, referring to the severely limited Friday running, caused by low-lying cloud restricting the movement of the medical helicopter.
“Today was a real challenge I think for all of us, in the sense that we had to compile a lot of yesterday’s testing into this morning and hope we’ve hit the nail on the head with the balance of the car.
“The Ferrari looked so fast through practice this morning and each qualifying session, we knew it’d be close and it meant we’d have to pull out all stops and have a very, very perfect lap.
“I managed to just chip away at it session to session, there were no major issues, my last lap was the best lap, which is always the plan.”
Hamilton also revelled in the possibility of another scrap with Ferrari rival Vettel, who edged Hamilton during the season-opening Grand Prix in Australia.
“I’m very happy, super grateful for the huge effort the team has put in to keep us in the fight,” he said.
“It’s more exciting than ever for me, we’re really fighting these guys, it’s amazing.”
“It’s what racing’s all about and it really pushes you to have to push and raise the bar every time you go out [on track], which I love.”
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