Fresh from clinching his record-equalling seventh Formula 1 world championship last time out, Lewis Hamilton was in confident form in today's qualifying session for the Bahrain Grand Prix.
The Mercedes driver topped all three rounds and went on to set a new track record at Sakhir with a Q3 lap clocking in at 1:27.264s, almost three tenths of a second ahead of his team mate Valtteri Bottas.
Speaking to the media after the session, Hamilton admitted that it had felt a lot easier this week now that the pressure of securing his latest championship was over with.
"I came today and I was like, let’s just have fun and enjoy," he said. "That’s the most important thing, to enjoy what you’re doing, and with the pressure a little bit off, it’s a bit of a release to go and drive like I just did.
“This is the continuation of what we’re able to do together as a team,” he added.
"The lap started off really well," he reported. “There was probably a little bit of time in turn 1, just a little bit underperformed I would say to the apex, but after that it was good.
"Turn 4, turn 6 was a little bit slower, I probably could have gone better there," he admitted. "Otherwise it was a very clean lap. I generally stayed around two-and-a-half tenths the whole way through so I was pretty happy with it.
"There’s always just a little bit here and there - but the next lap I go out, maybe I’ll improve here and there and I’ll lose somewhere else."
As always, Hamilton was quick to credit his engineers and team personnel for all their efforts: “This is the continuation of what we’re able to do together as a team.
“I just continue to be amazed by my guys, naturally that work so hard weekend in weekend out," he added. "They’re away from their families for three weeks. But no matter what’s thrown at us, it’s always a really tough year, and I appreciate them."
Meanwhile Bottas himself admitted that he was confused by how far behind Hamilton had has ended up being in qualifying. "I was quite surprised when I saw the gap," he said,.
"It felt good, that’s the problem," he sighed. "It feels good and you feel like you’re extracting everything from the car, but the lap time is not there. That’s the most confusing part.
“There was no mistakes in the last lap, I thought it was really good. It was like small things here and there, there was no one clear corner. So I need to find out.
"I think we ended up with quite different set-ups with Lewis, so we will see if that makes any difference", he said, while adding that such disparities weren't unusual. “In times it’s been nearly identical, there’s been times it’s different,”.
"I don’t think there’s any underlying issue really with the performance of the car,” he added. “It’s there, and the long runs were good so I’m looking forward to tomorrow.
"At least it’s another front row lock-out for us," he acknowledged.
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