Lewis Hamilton did not expect pole position
This is an unexpected pole position awaiting Lewis Hamilton at the start of the race tomorrow. With his main championship rival starting last, the Brit will want to take the opportunity to widen the gap and secure victory on Sunday. But he remains cautious of Räikkönen in the other Ferrari and the Red Bulls behind him.
In difficulties throughout the weekend, Lewis Hamilton and Mercedes surely did not expect such a result at the Sepang circuit.
But just like in Singapore, where victory was handed to him on a platter after a collision between the two Ferraris and Max Verstappen’s Red Bull, today’s pole position was facilitated by the engine failure of his championship rival, Sebastian Vettel: “We had a difficult day yesterday and it wasn’t easy to know where we stood,” Hamilton recalls. “I didn’t sleep very well, nor did my engineers because we didn’t know if we were going to solve the problem or not,” he continues.
Finally, thanks to Vettel’s misfortune, the Mercedes engine boost in Q3, and a better understanding of his car’s behavior, Hamilton managed to clinch an unexpected pole position: « Today we arrived with a better car. But it still seemed that the Ferraris were slightly ahead. We did a great job to ensure that this qualification and these laps, particularly the last one, the first of Q3, were perfect. It was a very good lap. I’m not really sure where it came from, to be honest. I’m a little surprised myself. As I said, it’s a surprise to be here, but I’m happy about it. »
A happiness not exactly shared on the other side of the Mercedes garage where Valtteri Bottas was not at all in the rhythm and will only start 5th tomorrow. An obvious disappointment for the Finn who was not using the same aerodynamic package as his teammate: « It’s easy to say after the fact, but if I could redo the qualifications, I would certainly have taken the other package. For sure, we need to review everything. We need to see what the differences are. The gap in Q3 was indeed huge. We will study everything to fully understand what is happening with the car because there is too much work to do to make it work well, and sometimes we succeed, sometimes we don’t. I didn’t manage today. »
A not necessarily more optimistic Bottas for the upcoming race: « It was tricky in several races this year. The setups weren’t different, but we didn’t have the same package. We need to analyze which one was better, probably Lewis’s! Hopefully, we have a good pace and can focus on our race. We will do our best to be ahead of the two Ferraris. »
Soak it up @LewisHamilton! #MalaysiaGP #F1 pic.twitter.com/8M2zYQkfmY
— Mercedes-AMG F1 (@MercedesAMGF1) 30 septembre 2017
