Having stormed to a second successive pole position, Lewis Hamilton feels his final Q3 lap around the streets of Baku was even better than his last at the Canadian Grand Prix.
Hamilton went fastest by over four tenths to his Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas, and also over a second ahead of the Ferrari pair of Sebastian Vettel and Kimi Räikkönen on the second row.
“My pole lap in Montreal was pretty special, but I think this one here tops that,” he remarked.
It wasn’t all plain sailing for the Brit though, as his first attempt at pole before the session-stopping accident of Daniel Ricciardo did not go exactly to plan.
“My first run in Q3 was actually really good, but I was a bit greedy into the last corner, locked up and cost myself time.
“After the red flag, there was a lot of pressure on that final lap. All weekend we’ve struggled to switch the car on over a single lap, but it was an all or nothing moment so I just gave it everything I had.”
Despite the emphatic gaps between himself and his team-mate, Hamilton took time to heap praise on Bottas for his efforts, and was pleased they had locked out the front row for tomorrow’s race.
“Valtteri was on a great lap as well, so when I came across the line and saw that I had pole, it was such a good feeling. Even if that time had only been enough for P2 it was a lap to be proud of.”
