© Steve Etherington for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd.
Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas scored another front row lockout for Mercedes at the Bahrain Grand Prix. Here are their first reactions after qualifying.
“I really didn’t celebrate [my seventh title] too much to be honest,“ said Hamilton.
“That’s because I was training and keeping my mind and eye on the ball. 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. Now they’re away from their families for three weeks and no matter what’s thrown at us, it’s always a really tough year, and I appreciate them.
“To be out here in Bahrain and be able to put laps like that together. You know I came today and I was like, let’s just have fun and enjoy and 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.”
Hamilton managed to take pole 0.289s clear of team-mate Valtteri Bottas.
“I think the lap started off really well,” explained the Briton.
“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.
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“I could talk you through the lap and tell you that 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. But 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,” concluded the seven-time champion.
Valtteri Bottas felt he had a good lap, but ultimately failed to beat Lewis.
“I don’t know where he was faster, that’s also the problem,” said Bottas.
“It felt very good, but the lap time doesn’t work out in the end. That’s really weird. I can’t say much about it at the moment.
“It didn’t feel like there was a problem and the lap just felt pretty good. There are some little things here and there, but luckily we made it to the front row of the grid with Mercedes.
“I don’t think there is an underlying problem. The performance is there in the car and the speed in the long term looks good.
“I am looking forward to tomorrow,” concluded the Finn.
