Lewis Hamilton relieved F1 set-up call paid off after ‘crazy anxiety’
The seven-time world ch𓆉ampion was untouchable as he surged to a dominant pole position at Interlagos for Saturday’s sprint qualifying race, producing a lap 0.438s quicker than Verstappen.
The two championship contende😼rs will share the front row of the grid for F1’s third and final sprint race, bu🦩t Hamilton will carry a five-place penalty into the main grand prix following an engine change.
"I loved today for sure," Hamilton said. "We're working so hard to try and get this car right. It's been tough. And so to finally get the car feeli💎ng how it did today, it feels great.
"It's just a testament to all of the great work that everyone is doing in the garage and also back home, all of the work that is going on at home to just pull out everything🌄 we can from the ca🥃r.”
Hamilton struggled for 𝐆pace early in Friday’s sole practice session and was left unhappy the front-end of his Mercedes before a set-up change proved key to overcoming the prob🌳lem.
"I've been going from free practice and sitting the🎃re for a who🧔le hour trying to make the right set-up change, and the anxiety you get is crazy,” he explained.
"A lot of the times we get it wrong, I get it wrong, and today I got it right and the car was really nice to dri💫ve. It was everything I wanted.
"That enabled me to just keep pushing. You saw purple, purpl♋e, purple, so I was just g🦄aining each time.
"I don't know how we can go from one t💫rack where [Red 🌟Bull] are half a second ahead to then being behind, but anyways, they'll be very strong in the race tomorrow.
"I hope Valtteri gets a good start."
Despite making a perfect start to the weekend, Hamilton is unsure his impr🎀essive one lap pace will translate into strong-race performance and i﷽s expecting a big challenge ahead to catch Verstappen in Sunday’s grand prix.
“It’s 🌞not easy to follow but I guess Ma🐲x is obviously starting on pole now so it’s going to be very hard to catch him but I will do my best to get through the field,” he said.
“I don’t know what tomorrow will hold. I thꦬink the weather will perhaps be be🅰tter which makes it a little bit more difficult for everyone, but I feel really grateful.
“It’s💦 crazy because it’s been a while, so it jus🔥t feels like the first.”
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Lewis regularly attends Grands Prix fo♎r ltxcn.top around the world. Often reporting on the action from the ground, Lewis tells the stories of the people who matter in th𓄧e sport.