Lewis Hamilton said it will take a while for him to come to terms with beating Michael Schumacher’s pole positions record.
“It’s very hard to find the word to explain how I feel,” said Hamilton after becoming the first F1 driver to achieve 69 pole positions in his career.
It took over three hours to complete the qualifying session due to heavy rain.
“It was very difficult to see the lines and very easy to make mistakes,” said Hamilton.
“The second to last lap was OK at the beginning and then I backed out of it, hoping I’d get one more lap and there’s a lot of pressure for that last lap. There could have been a red flag, a yellow flag or something like that, so a lot to risk, but I gave it everything. It probably won’t sink in for a long time.”
Schumacher had held the pole positions record for the previous 11 years. Hamilton paid tribute to his “greatness” and “dreamt of one day doing what he’s doing”.
“We are, and I am, living proof that dreams are something that can come true. So I think it’s really cool for young kids to be watching today because it’s probably hard to imagine it but I was once going there, in their position and dreaming of doing what I’m doing today which they perhaps are and very proud for what we, as a family, have achieved.”
Damon (@damon)
2nd September 2017, 20:21
There’s always a sort of cognitive dissonance when comparing current drivers/sportsmen/athlets to the legends of the past, but Lewis Hamilton may very much be the Ayrton Senna of the modern era.
I only wish Fernando Alonso wasn’t so unfortunate with the cars he has been driving for the last half a decade or more as to challenge that notion.
David BR (@david-br)
2nd September 2017, 21:07
Or ‘unfortunate’ in his choice of manager.
DonSmee (@david-beau)
2nd September 2017, 21:56
The achievement won’t sink in any time soon for us fans either. Maybe six, eight years down the line when Lewis retires.
Esploratore
3rd September 2017, 2:59
IMO it already did: I’m a schumacher fan, though I also like hamilton, but it was clear since the time he was in his first career that qualifying wasn’t his strongest suit, even then he was definitely decent, but hamilton is better at that, and senna was better than hamilton at that, and probably some of the first drivers like fangio, clark, ascari, could be better than senna, we just don’t have a huge sample of races from them, for that little they raced their percentages were better than senna.
Big Joe
3rd September 2017, 3:53
It’s hard to sink in that Lewis has had the best engine his whole career. An engine that gets a bigger advantage at every rule change it seems.
Damon85
3rd September 2017, 5:04
It’s hard to sink in that Hamilton has got more poles in fewer races than Schumacher who also had dominant cars for most of his career and lapdog teammates. Just imagine how many poles Lewis would be on now if he’d had Irvine and Barrichello as teammates…….
Marian Gri (@)
3rd September 2017, 6:05
Well, Button and Bottas were/are the new Irvine and Barrichello. Then, let’s not forget that back in the day, the teams could mount special engines in Quali just for the sake of the PP, BMW/Montoya being the latest good example. So, MSchumacher’s main problem in getting more PP wasn’t actually his team-mates, but the other teams, so I guess his cars weren’t so dominant as it seems when looking at the stats. But, yeah, I agree that HAM seems a better qualifier than MS.
Marian Gri (@)
3rd September 2017, 6:12
Frogot about Kovalainen, by no means better than Irvine and Barrichello.
Damon85
3rd September 2017, 9:25
Button and Bottas the next Barrichello/Irvine hahahahaha, I’ll have some of what you’re smoking please.
You forgot a certain Mr Rosberg who demolished your hero 41/17 in qualifying.
Hamilton driving in Schumacher’s era would have gained over 100 poles, fact.
Marian Gri (@)
3rd September 2017, 12:25
Keep dreaming! Main reason why HAM would have never reached even 80 pole positions in past eras: car reliability! Plus, fewer races per season. It seems you have no idea how many times the engines blew up before 2005. Back in the day what’s happening now to Verstappen was more or less the norm. You must be under the impression that past cars were pretty much as reliable as the current cars. False. They were a lot less reliable, although not so complicated as these new cars. And I’ll tell the reason why so many records are broken now more than ever, especially the “consecutive” records: cars reliability and points being awarded to 4 more drivers, up to top10. And not because the drivers are much better now.
Damon85
3rd September 2017, 12:34
That hole you keep digging is getting deeper and deeper. Schumacher had amazing reliability when driving the dominant cars of 2000-2004. Add lapdog Barrichello to the equation and you can see why Schumacher did so well.
James (@jimbo0070)
3rd September 2017, 4:20
Whats impressive is that he’s had high quality team mates, 3 other world champions no less. Schumacher and Senna(bar Prost) had little competition from drivers in the same machinary.
Marian Gri (@)
3rd September 2017, 6:18
He spent just 1 year together with ALO and his rate of getting PP and wins wasn’t so high as today, for example. Then, it’s really hard to call Button a ”high quality team mate”. Rosberg does look stronger than Button, very close to ALO, but he was no champion all the years spent with HAM. So, HAM had only 2 WDC as team mates.
NoName (@noname)
3rd September 2017, 7:19
@corrado-dub How many good teammates did Alonso or Vettel ?. ZERO. Hamilton is head and shoulder above them two.
Damon85
3rd September 2017, 9:28
The 1 year as a rookie, digging holes there son. Mr Alonso couldn’t handle the rookies speed so went whistle blowing and ran from the team with his tail between his legs.
Hamilton has beat 3 world champions in his amazing career, Schumacher teamed up with one who was ready for his pension.