Considering his one-lap struggles in recent times, Lewis Hamilton bounced back to secure the third position in qualifying for the Singapore Grand Prix. While he managed to beat his Mercedes teammate George Russell by 0.026 seconds, his time of 1:29.841 in a one-lap shootout in Q3 (following Carlos Sainz’s crash) placed him over three tenths behind pole sitter Lando Norris.
Despite their doubts about struggling to make it out of the second segment of qualifying after a poor showing in practice sessions on Friday, a second row lockout would offer the Silver Arrows a fair chance of scoring a podium or better in the race tomorrow.
Post qualifying, Hamilton was asked whether the P3 was a surprise after the tough time Mercedes had in practice. Answering that it wasn’t necessarily an unexpected outcome, he offered further explanation that he was unable to test the limits and extract more lap time due to the considerable understeer he encountered in the practice sessions.
“I’m not saying it’s a surprise, but I mean, through the weekend so far, we were looking, well, I was looking particularly very poor. I mean, this morning and all of yesterday, we were 1.2 seconds off this, guys. So we arrived with a car that was massively understeery, and we just couldn’t dial any in, no matter what we did.
“Nothing changed. And…made changes overnight, came here today, pretty much the same thing, and I was definitely shocked to see that we were still 1.2 seconds behind Lando [Norris] again.”
While he tempered his expectations going into qualifying, the final modifications they made after the third practice session paid off, and Hamilton found himself in the groove under the lights at the Marina Bay Circuit. Referring to Sainz’s crash in the early stages of Q3, he commented that the red flag disrupted their momentum and made it challenging for the drivers to perfect their run in a one-lap shootout.
“And then we just kept our heads down, kept not giving up, and we made some more changes and got into this session, and it was like night and day. Such a big difference.
“Car was all of a sudden alive, and I was able to go where I wanted to go. It was looking really strong throughout qualifying and I think obviously with the crash in Q3 it made it difficult for all of us to put that final lap together.”
Estimating that a front row might’ve been on the cards if the tyres were in the right window, the 39-year-old sounded doubtful about delivering a better result and confessed that he was genuinely content with starting from third on the grid.
“I think my lap was also nothing special. Very difficult to get the tyres perfect and not overslide them. I had a lot of snaps.
“So I think with a better job, maybe we could have been front row with this guy [Lando Norris], but I don’t know whether or not we could have beaten him today. But still really, really happy.”
Touching on his qualifying struggles this season and his candour regarding the same, Hamilton was asked whether this particular result was rewarding. Acknowledging the dip in his one-lap performance, the seven-time world champion revealed that he was delighted to be competitive with the top drivers on the grid. Moreover, he added that he felt confident in the W15 for the first time in a long while in qualifying.
“Oh yeah, I mean, just to be up here with these guys, great drivers. I’ve not been up here for a while and yeah, qualifying has been a nightmare for quite a long time. So it feels great to be up here. I feel very, very grateful and very, very happy.
“I’ve just been working and working and working trying to get myself back up there, and all of a sudden the car came alive in qualifying for the first time in a long time in qualifying.”
In terms of whether the changes made to the car would translate to good race pace tomorrow, Hamilton responded that he wasn’t certain. However, given the fairly responsive front end that Mercedes managed to bring into qualifying, he sounded cautiously optimistic about keeping up with the cars ahead with good tyre management.
“That I have no idea. You know, one day at a time. I mean, it was a lot better today. It was the first time we had any front end. And, you know, we’ve seen that McLarens have been so quick each weekend. So I don’t know.
“I think with management, I’m hoping we can try and keep up with these guys. Maybe not the McLarens, but we’ll be given everything.”
Highlighting the advantage of their second row lockout, Hamilton also remarked that he is hopeful about keeping the pressure on the front-runners tomorrow and staying on their tail, alongside teammate Russell.
“And I think hopefully from here, George and I are in the second row, so hopefully from here we can apply pressure to these two and to even to be ahead of another McLaren and another Red Bull and also the Ferraris is mega, considering how fast the Ferraris particularly are here. So yeah, I hope that we can hold on to these guys tomorrow.”
With regard to how confident he is about stepping onto the podium, Hamilton replied that it’s difficult to draw any conclusions. Stating that their long run simulations looked particularly average in comparison to McLaren’s, he added that he expects the balance of the car to shift again tomorrow.
Nonetheless, the Brit claimed that regulating the temperature of the rear tyres would play a key role in determining the outcome of the race tomorrow and whether they make it onto the podium.
“It’s very hard to say because it was such a nightmare the past day and a half. I think our long run pace was so-so. Nowhere near these guys, or at least the McLarens. But we have now put the car in a much different window. So we have to also anticipate a different balance tomorrow compared to the past every other session.
“Yeah, I think here is really about managing tyres temps. So that’s going to have to be key tomorrow. So doing absolutely everything we can to keep the temperatures out of the rears, basically. I hope in our attempt to do that, we’re somehow able to hold on to at least one of these guys. But yeah, we’ll find out tomorrow. I feel confident, though, that we might be able to do that.”
