Lewis Hamilton was delighted to end his bad run of qualifying results by taking pole position for Sunday’s Spanish Grand Prix at the Circuit de Catalunya.
The triple World Drivers’ Champion took pole with a lap of 1m22.000s to deny championship-leading team-mate Nico Rosberg top spot by 0.280s, and is looking to finally have an on-track battle with his team-mate after having his races compromised this season.
Hamilton was happy to find the time that he felt he was lacking compared to his Mercedes AMG PETRONAS team-mate during the weekend up until qualifying.
“That felt great today to finally put the lap together, I’m very, very happy,” said Hamilton. “You always need to put that performance in, it reassures your belief, and Nico had been so fast this weekend, sometimes two tenths quicker, sometimes more.
“I could see on my data where I was losing, so I had to try and figure it out on track, and it is so satisfying to attack that obstacle and get through it.
“I am really grateful to the team for working hard overnight to put the car in the right place for me to fight – and now it’s three poles from three for me when I’ve been able to do the laps in qualifying.
“I haven’t had a proper race with Nico yet this year so I am hoping that will start tomorrow. It’s very hard to overtake here, so strategy is important, as is looking after the tyres: the forces round this circuit means it just eats the tyres up, so you need to get that balance just right and see it through to the finish.”
