Lewis Hamilton: “I’m very happy that I was able to pull that time out”

Lewis Hamilton has kept his world title challenge firmly on track by securing another pole position in Singapore.

The McLaren driver did his time in his first run, and then kissed the wall on his second. He didn’t need to go any faster, as pole was already in the bag.

“The guys have done a fantastic job all week and to come here with some small things that have improved from the last race,” said Hamilton. “Obviously we have high downforce here so we weren’t sure where we would turn out against the others but obviously Sebastian was incredibly fast through most of the sessions. I’m not really sure what happened in the end. Nonetheless I’m very happy that I was able to pull that time out. A great lap, I’m very happy with it.”

Hamilton admitted that it wasn’t easy to get it right.

“Just trying to find the gaps is quite difficult, particularly in Q1. And making sure your tyres are up to temperature, making sure your brakes are up to temperature without using them before you start your lap.

“And yeah, the first few laps I did on the prime, it was quite poor, and I feel very fortunate that I was able to get at least one lap on them, so I didn’t have to go again.”

Lewis agrees that tyres will be the big story on Sunday: “It’s an incredibly tough circuit for tyre degradation, as we have at pretty much every track but especially as it’s hot and humid here. So I think everyone is going to struggle with that, and I think we just have to try and get away cleanly at the start and stick to the strategy that we have planned and be prepared if it doesn’t work.

“Hopefully we’ve done the work we need to do to hopefully put together a good package tomorrow. We’ve put ourselves in the best position so I hope that we will be able to capitalise on that tomorrow.”