Lewis Hamilton, Mercedes, Silverstone, 2018

Hamilton: Silverstone pole lap was most pressure ever

2018 British Grand Prix

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Lewis Hamilton says he’s never experienced more pressure in qualifying than when he took pole position for the British Grand Prix today.

“It’s one of the best laps I’ve ever produced,” Hamilton said after taking his fifth consecutive pole position at home. “I would say it was the most pressurised lap that I’ve ever had.”

“I was shaking through the emotions,” he added. “The adrenaline rush was actually way above the limit that I had experienced before. Its kind of crazy to think it’s my 76th [pole position].”

Hamilton was second after making a couple of small errors on his first run in qualifying. In response to a question from RaceFans, Hamilton said he felt under extra pressure to deliver on his final run.

“The lap was intense,” he said. “I left the pit lane, the first lap was OK, it was pretty good. And then I saw that I dropped to second. Obviously that naturally just adds a little bit more pressure.”

Hamilton’s real-time reading of his lap time showed he was on course to improve his time by 0.17 seconds towards the end of the lap. But that fell as he approached the finishing line.

“I came across the line 0.09 better than my previous lap but I was just praying that it was enough.” Hamilton had to wait for Vettel and Kimi Raikkonen to complete their laps before knowing he had taken pole position.

Lap times have fallen at Silverstone this year as a new surface was laid at the track. Hamilton said it’s now “the fastest track in the world”.

“We’re flat-out through turn one, flat-out through Copse. It’s insane now. Going flat out at two-hundred-and-whatever kilometres we’re doing. It’s flat out into Maggotts and Becketts, all the way through 11 and 12.

“And again also Stowe, with the headwind we had there, it’s incredible how fast it is. I think on TV it doesn’t look like we’re lifting but we are.”

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Keith Collantine
Lifelong motor sport fan Keith set up RaceFans in 2005 - when it was originally called F1 Fanatic. Having previously worked as a motoring...

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3 comments on “Hamilton: Silverstone pole lap was most pressure ever”

  1. With the cars bouncing around and sparks flying it really does look like the drivers are going for the limit yes. On some other tracks you see the pole lap video and it more or less looks like “just another lap”.

  2. Thank You Hamilton
    ..make us forget that cheatful Schumbag already.

  3. id say drivers many drivers in the bottom 10 feel more pressure every weekend than Hamilton ever will. no one else in the history of f1 has had so many championship winning capable race cars year on year.

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