Lewis Hamilton says it was “incredible” for Mercedes to emerge as Red Bull’s closest challenger during qualifying for Formula 1’s Australian Grand Prix.
Hamilton sat only nine-thousandths of a second behind Max Verstappen after the first runs in Q3 at a circuit where he has claimed pole position on eight separate occasions.
Hamilton was shuffled down to third at the end of Q3, having been overhauled by team-mate George Russell, but was buoyed by the pace of the W14 during the session.
“This was a totally unexpected result and I’m so happy and grateful for P3,” said Hamilton.
“My second lap wasn’t as good as the first one. I did gain a little bit of time in the last sector, but ultimately lost out a little bit at the beginning of the lap.
“I’m not disappointed though and I’m going to work as hard as I can to try and move forwards tomorrow.
“I’m proud of the team. We’re all working as hard as we can to get right back up the front, so to be this close to the Red Bull is incredible. Hopefully tomorrow we can give them a bit of a run for their money.”
Russell will start Sunday’s race from the front row of the grid and was equally shocked by the outcome.
“The car felt alive today and we weren’t expecting that result at all,” he said.
“The lap at the end was right on the limit; I’m a little bit disappointed that we didn’t get pole position. But that’s one of those things in this sport. Your expectations change so quickly; we probably would have been happy with a top five result yesterday but today the car felt awesome.
“It goes to show we’ve got potential still to come. There is a lot of hard work going on back at the factory and here in Melbourne. I’m excited for tomorrow – it’s going to be tough against Max, but we’re definitely very happy to be lining up P2.”
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