Hamilton: 'It feels great' to nail quali set-up in Sao Paulo!

Lewis Hamilton was in a positive mood after nailing the set-up of his Mercedes in time to finish top of Friday evening's qualifying session in Sao Paulo.

Hamilton had been fastest in the sole free practice earlier in the day and was then quickest in each of the three rounds of qualifying, finishing with a 0.438s advantage over Max Verstappen in Q3.

While the outcome of today's session doesn't set the starting order for Sunday's race, it does gives the reigning world champion a crucial mental boost heading into tomorrow's sprint race that will.

• Read also: Hamilton to start from P1 in Saturday Sao Paulo sprint

"I loved today for sure," Hamilton told the media in parc ferme after the end of qualifying. "We're working so hard to try and get this car right, it's been tough.

"To finally get the car feeling how it did today, it feels great," he added, alluding the struggles the team has had in recent weekends.

"I've been going from FP3 and sitting there for a whole hour trying to make the right set-up change, and the anxiety you get is crazy," he explained.

"A lot of the times we get it wrong - I get it wrong - and today I got it right and the car was really nice to drive. It was everything I wanted.

"It enabled me to just keep pushing. You saw purple, purple, purple [sectors] so I was just gaining each time," he continued. "I don’t know if that will translate to the race.

"It's just a testament to all of the great work that everyone is doing in the garage and also back home," he pointed out. "All of the work that is going on at home to just pull out everything we can from the car."

It was certainly a striking change from last weekend in Mexico City where Red Bull had the upper hand in the high altitude conditions.

"I don't know how we can go from one track where they are half a second ahead to then being behind," Hamilton acknowledged. "But anyway they'll be very strong in the race tomorrow."

The best Hamilton can do is to win the sprint race, but he'll then have a five place grid drop for the Grand Prix as a result of taking a new engine for this weekend's race.

“I think it was yesterday,” he said when asked when the decision has been mace to introduce a new ICE. "It was a decision that the team took; I trust their judgement.

“I think right until the last minute they were trying to say, ‘We’ve got to make a decision on whether we should be able to make it to the end [of the season]."

That decision means he will start no higher than sixth on Sunday, with Verstappen poised to take pole in his absence. Hamilton said he was hoping that his team mate Valtteri Bottas would be able to insert himself into the battle.

"I hope Valtteri gets a good start," he said. It’s a bit unfortunate to have a penalty [for the race], but it is what it is and I’ll try and fight back from there.”

Hamilton is now 19 points behind Verstappen in the drivers standings with just four races to go in the 2021 championship.

While a reduced number of points are available to the top three in the sprint race, it's the Grand Prix where Hamilton needs to pull out all the stops to limit the damage to his waning hopes of retaining the title.

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