Hamilton delighted to top 'intense' qualifying

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Lewis Hamilton was looking delighted to be back on top again after clinching pole position for the Spanish Grand Prix.

The British driver has missed out on the top spot in the most recent two races and was relieved to be back on form again in Barcelona.

"That was a really intense qualifying," he said afterwards. "We had to pull out every millisecond we could to take pole.

"The team made some changes ahead of qualifying and the car felt great, so I was very happy with it.

"We potentially were a tenth ahead of the Ferraris, then in Q3 it seemed that we were a lot closer"

"My first Q3 lap was very, very good. Q1 and Q2 were good. The last lap was so-so," he admitted. "I was up, lost two-tenths and didn't finish it in the way that I should.

"But I could hear the guys cheering and I could see the flags that we have out here," he continued.

Qualifying: Hamilton beats Vettel to pole position in Spain

"The fans here are amazing every year. I feel I've really been growing a lot in Spain over the last ten years. I really appreciate the support I get here.

"It's always a morale boost when you come to Barcelona, it's like you're home," he added. "You come here and you see support. [The fans] make the atmosphere what it is, and the weekend what it is."

"Amazing job by the team. Super-proud that we can finally get up there," he said, adding that it had been a much better weekend so far than last time out in Sochi. Part of that has been the success of a range of new upgrades to the W08 introduced by Mercedes this weekend.

"I don't know if the guys back at the factory get tired of hearing this, but they've done an incredible job.

"To make this step forward and bring a great package for this weekend to keep us in the fight with the Ferrari, I'm so grateful to them.

"We'll work as hard as we can on Sunday so that effort doesn't go to waste."

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Andrew Lewin

Andrew first became a fan of Formula 1 during the time when Michael Schumacher and Damon Hill were stepping into the limelight after the era of Alain Prost, Nigel Mansell and Aryton Senna. He's been addicted ever since, and has been writing about the sport now for nearly a quarter of a century for a number of online news sites. He's also written professionally about GP2 (now Formula 2), GP3, IndyCar, World Rally Championship, MotoGP and NASCAR. In his other professional life, Andrew is a freelance writer, social media consultant, web developer/programmer, and digital specialist in the fields of accessibility, usability, IA, online communities and public sector procurement. He worked for many years in magazine production at Bauer Media, and for over a decade he was part of the digital media team at the UK government's communications department. Born and raised in Essex, Andrew currently lives and works in south-west London.