© Steve Etherington for Mercedes-Benz Grand Prix Ltd.
Lewis Hamilton says he has no explanation for Mercedes’ suddenly improved pace, but he intends to battle to keep the advantage.
Although Red Bull has been the favourite to take pole at the Mexican Grand Prix Qualifying, the session actually ended with Mercedes locking out the front row.
Afterwards Lewis Hamilton said he had no idea why his car’s pace improved.
“Firstly, a huge congratulations to Valtteri – he did an amazing job today,” started the Briton.
“That lap, I just, I couldn’t really match it, and we’ve come into this weekend from FP1 onwards, we’ve been behind by half a second.
“So, through the whole weekend just working away at trying to improve the car, extracting as much as we can from it, but knowing they’ve generally got higher downforce than us; they’ve got a bit of a bigger wing that they use in places like Monaco.
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“So we’ve struggled in certain parts of the track and it’s a real surprise and a shock to us to see that we’re in the front row.
“I don’t really have an answer for it, but I’ll take it, for sure, and really grateful to be up there with Valtteri for the team to get a one-two.”
The seven-time champion said he intends to battle to keep the advantage that Mercedes now has.
“Well, once again, we’ve been behind – all our results over these past three free practice sessions have shown that we were behind.
“Not only in qualifying from around three-tenths on a single lap but also in race trim, so who knows?
“I think track position is pretty important here, so we’ll work as a team to try and battle that and keep it,” Lewis concluded.
