In an interview with the media yesterday, Mercedes driver Lewis Hamilton has set his sights on seeing off the perennial challenge from Nico Rosberg and the prospect of renewed threats from Mercedes’ rivals to claim what he has termed a “very important” pole position in Singapore this weekend.
For the 11th time in 14 races this season, it was Hamilton who set the pace on the opening day of a grand prix weekend, although the significant caveat that should be applied to the reading of Friday’s final P2 timesheet is that Rosberg was forced to abort what would have been his sole fast lap on the supersoft tyres.
Still, on the back of his race victory over his championship-leading team-mate at Monza, in his interview yesterday, Hamilton admitted he “feels good” at Marina Bay and is now eyeing his third career pole at the floodlit street circuit. Hamilton stated the following:-
‘It [pole]’s been very, very important. For the start, for example, the right side always gets better starts, and it’s impossible to follow here. So getting at the front, as always, is going to be really important and that’ll be the target.’
As Hamilton says, having Pole Position in Singapore has been crucial for drivers to get the best performance in the race. Hamilton has made it clear the significance of claiming Pole Position in Qualifying and believes that it will help him have a reasonable weekend.
With the red flag that truncated Rosberg’s supersoft run rendering the difference in pace between the duelling Mercedes pair on the P2 timesheet meaningless, the mere two hundredths of a second that separated Hamilton and Rosberg in the earlier session points to another intense battle at the front of the field.
And while naturally expecting the sister car to be strong, further on in his interview, Hamilton is also aware of the prospect of improved competitiveness from the chasing pack after Ferrari and Red Bull finished within 0.3s of his best time. Hamilton added the following:-
‘I feel good this weekend, but Nico’s very quick as well. Also the Red Bulls, we don’t know where they’ll be, and also Ferrari look quite quick so we’ve just got to focus on our job.’
Even though Hamilton is feeling confident about his chances this weekend, he is not discounting his team mate from challenging him also as many would expect him too. It is worth mentioning like Hamilton has said yesterday that Ferrari and Red Bull have also looked quick in the early sessions and could spring a surprise. But Hamilton just needs to focus on the job he needs to do this weekend.
However, Hamilton’s assessment of his day as a whole in Mercedes’ end-of-day press release suggests the W05 has yet to fully stretch its legs around the challenging 5.065km layout of the Marina Bay circuit. Hamilton said the following in the latter stages of his interview yesterday:-
‘Today was a work in progress. We made some changes between P1 and P2 and, whether it was those changes or the track itself, the balance didn’t feel right.
‘It felt like we lost a bit of performance but we’ll look into the details and see what it was tonight. The long run was okay – I had a bit of traffic which wasn’t ideal, as when you back off to rebuild the gap the tyres come back to you a bit which may not give an accurate picture of exactly how long they will last.’
Even though Hamilton was quick yesterday, it would seem that he wants to improve and build upon his performance as well. Hamilton feels that the changes he made yesterday affected his car and I am sure he will be working closely with the team and his engineers to resolve the balances issues he is experiencing.
With what Hamilton says about his long run pace and the Marina Bay circuit being a high traction circuit that affects the rear tyres especially, it would seem that he is unsure about how the tyres will last. But I am sure that he will look at the data and see if he can improve or adapt his driving to help his tyres in long runs.
But I would have to agree with Hamilton and I feel that if he claims Pole Position, he will be the best possible position for the race on Sunday. With the Marina Bay circuit hard on traction, tyres and also impossible to overtake, it could be Hamilton’s best chance to close the gap down further to Rosberg for the championship.
However, you cannot discount Rosberg to be pushing Hamilton on the track for Pole Position or during the race as he is also showed so far that he has the pace in the car too as many would expect. But can Hamilton achieve Pole Position? We shall have to wait and see if Hamilton can do it.
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