© LAT Images for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd
Lewis Hamilton says he has put in some work to regain the qualifying pace he had before 2019, when he scored just five poles.
In 2019 Hamilton managed to score only five pole positions, the same number as his team-mate Valtteri Bottas. However this year Hamilton returned with a vengeance and scored five pole positions, compared to Bottas’ two.
“Last year Valtteri was putting in great laps as he always does but I think I was definitely under-performing in qualifying,” said the Briton.
“That is generally a strength of mine. It was really understanding these tyres and how I utilised it with my driving style.
“For this year I’ve had to make a couple of adjustments and on top of that, with this car, seems to work quite well.
“So now I’m back to being able to produce qualifying laps that I was able to do before last year, and on a more consistent basis.”
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Hamilton went on to further explain his progress.
“It’s just work in the background. It’s work that we do on the simulator; it’s stuff we do with set-up but getting that right without affecting the race.
“As you saw, last year the races were incredibly strong. It’s the fine line.”
Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff also praised Lewis’ dedication to self-improvement.
“One of his character traits, which is truly inspirational for the whole team, is that as a person off track and a driver in the car he is just always able to improve,” Wolff told Channel 4.
“You would think that a six-time World Champion, a global superstar of the sport, should say at a certain stage ‘that is good, what I’m doing’ but he would never do this,” concluded the Austrian.
