Lewis Hamilton heaped praise on Mercedes as the team claimed its first front-row lockout of the 2018 season at the Spanish Grand Prix.
Hamilton took pole for Melbourne’s season-opener but missed out on each occasion since, as Ferrari rival Sebastian Vettel claimed a hat-trick of top spots over one lap.
In a qualifying session where the leaders diverged with their tyre strategies, Hamilton and Bottas used Supersofts to claim a 1-2, as Soft-clad Vettel finished third.
Results: Spanish Grand Prix qualifying
Hamilton’s time of 1:16.173 was the fastest-ever lap of the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, while it ensured Mercedes has taken pole at the event for six years in a row.
“We’ve had one pole [this season] but I don’t think we’ve had any great qualifying sessions after that,” he said.
“It was important for me to get back into a good position with qualifying as it is a huge strength of mine so it is definitely important.
“I am happy considering I had such a good week coming into this weekend so to have the performance so I am very happy with that.
“Then, I think for the team it has been a struggle but I’m sure they has been a lot of people not really understanding from the past few races so we’ve been constantly learning.
“So to come here and get the 1-2 in qualifying is mark on the hard work everyone is doing.”
Hamilton added that Mercedes was “open-minded” during its attempt to understand how to extract more lap time from its W09.
“The team has been working so hard so a huge thank you to everyone working hard back at the factory,” he said.
“We really tried to continue to understand and be open-minded, it is easy for us to get stuck in our ways, and definitely let loose and be open-minded to try to improve which is great.
“That is what it takes to be a winning team. It was a very close qualifying and you could see all weekend as Ferrari were clearly sand-bagging because they could, they knew they had a quick car.
“But it took everything from us to get this result and to get the 1-2 in qualifying is fantastic for the team.”
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