Hamilton 'incredibly proud' to match Senna, Fangio

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Lewis Hamilton described himself as "incredibly proud" to match the record of Ayrton Senna and Juan Manuel Fangio with pole position at the Italian Grand Prix.

Hamilton's dominant performance - which saw him take pole by half a second - was his fifth pole position at Monza, matching Senna and Fangio's respective tallies. The championship leader admits his lap was "an exceptional time" and says it is special to be able to mirror the achievements of some of F1's most successful drivers.

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“I’m obviously very happy today," Hamilton said. "I was only made aware of that record as I came into this weekend so of course that was in the back of my mind and I was hoping it wouldn’t steer me off course.

"I’m incredibly proud to be up amongst Senna and Juan Manuel, incredible drivers and I never in a million years thought my name would be mentioned in the same sentence as theirs so I’m very proud of that.

“Today, this weekend I had a very strong feeling and it obviously came my way again today. Particularly the last lap felt incredible and it’s such a great track, it’s got such a great crowd, a big thank you to all the people that have come out.

"What this team has achieved - as race-by-race I continue to say - is just phenomenal. I’m so fortunate to be driving for this team and to be representing them and to drive a car as it was today. I put it right in the sweet spot and was able to do an exceptional time with it.”

Having suffered a flat spot in Q2 on the tyres he will start the race on, Hamilton attempted to improve but failed to do so. However, the Mercedes driver played down the severity of the impact on his tyre.

“I didn’t really damage the tyre, I just had a small lock-up into Turn 1 and ultimately for the race tomorrow you want everything to be perfect. I had the pace, so I went back out and I was actually up but I just lost it in the last corner. But the flat spot is minimal, you can’t really feel it so I don’t think it will be a problem.”

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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.