Lewis Hamilton has said that he was "easily quickest" in today's German Grand Prix qualifying session and only missed out on pole due to his own error.
Hamilton will line up second on the grid tomorrow in Hockenheim, behind his team mate Nico Rosberg. On his final qualifying run the Englishman locked up a front wheel at the hairpin, and later he insisted that the time lost from the resultant 'flat spot' on his tyre cost him pole position.
"I was 2.26 [tenths] up at that point," he said, "and I think I lost maybe half a tenth on the exit of that corner. Then I lost those [rest of the gap] later on, [in] half a lap. I think as I came out of Turn 11 it had come down to 0.16 [seconds], then from Turn 12 onwards it was just less and less and less.
"Today I was quickest, all the way through qualifying I was quickest, quickest, quickest, quickest, and I was easily quickest again at the end and I have to look at myself."
Despite being apparently muted in the aftermath of qualifying, Hamilton insisted that "it doesn't hurt".
"I'm not down, firstly. I've got a race to win tomorrow," he went on.
"When any of you guys [in the press] are p***ed off with your own performance, you're not happy. This is not an emotional game.
"That's [that pole was lost to his own error] something that I have to handle and deal with and that's just how I deal with it. You know when you kind of kick yourself a little bit?
"There's nothing I can do about the past and [so I] move forward now and tomorrow I can make a difference."
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