Lewis Hamilton thought his spin at the end of Q3 was going to end up costing him pole position for the Austrian Grand Prix.
Already on provisional pole, Hamilton was starting his final flying lap while Nico Rosberg was already improving. Approaching Turn 1, Hamilton spun under braking, preventing him from trying to lower his benchmark time. While initially focused on getting his Mercedes moving again, Hamilton admits he thought pole position had gone as a result.
"I was grateful I got my third lap in on the first run in Q3," Hamilton said. "I was pushing for that bit extra on the next run and I just locked the rears.
“I wasn’t too particularly concerned with [pole] at the time, I was just trying to get the car running. The car was the most concerning thing. Obviously I was sitting backwards and I was in seventh gear or something like that and standing still. So I was trying to look after that, but naturally afterwards I was kind of like: ‘I probably lost it there’.”
And Hamilton says he has been struggling all weekend with a lack of confidence in his Mercedes which makes it more difficult to push to the limit.
“It was really quite a bad qualifying all round for me. I was off Nico by about 0.3s or 0.4s through each session and around each lap. I just didn’t have the confidence in the balance I had at the time and the temperature of the tyres and the brakes. So I was at least grateful that I got lap run of the Q3 first run and then lap three which was much better.
"I’m grateful that I got those two laps in, and then coming to the end I don’t really know exactly what went on but I locked the rears and snapped it round, very similar to what happened last year at Turn 2 here. I definitely do that quite often in this car, not quite sure why. I’ve just got big feet maybe!”
With Hamilton's 45th pole position putting him level with Sebastian Vettel in the all-time list, the double world champion says it isn't a statistic which he puts too much emphasis on.
“I’m very fortunate that I’ve had a good car the last two years to be able to get the poles and raise the amount that I’ve had. But I think I’d much rather have his world championships than the pole positions, so I’m working towards that.”
Click here for the gallery of the Formula Una girls at the Austrian Grand Prix
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