Lewis Hamilton admits shock after putting 'TERRIBLE' Mercedes car on pole

Lewis Hamilton

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Hamilton admits shock after putting 'TERRIBLE' Mercedes car on pole

Lewis Hamilton produced a mighty lap at the end of Q3 on Saturday to secure his first pole position since the 2021 season

Harry Smith

Saturday 22 July 2023 20:42 Updated: 20:01

Lewis Hamilton has revealed that he thought he had no chance of snatching pole position in Hungary given how 'terrible' the W14 had performed during Friday's practice sessions.

The Mercedes driver didn't set a representative lap time in FP1 and was only 16th-fastest at the end of FP2 on Friday afternoon, but bounced back on Saturday.

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Hamilton was in the conversation for pole position right from the off in Q3, eventually beating out long-time rival Max Verstappen and fellow Briton Lando Norris in the battle for pole position.

That result takes Hamilton's career tally up to 104 pole positions and represents just the second non-Red Bull pole of 2023 after Charles Leclerc's lap in Baku.

Hamilton: I thought we had no chance

"Honestly, it feels it feels like my first pole, believe it or not," Hamilton told Sky Sports reporters after the Hungarian Grand Prix.

"I know it's been a lot and it feels strange to say that when there's 104, but I don't remember the last time that I had a pole.

"it feels so long ago and we were not expecting that coming into the weekend."

The seven-time world champion then went on to explain that his hopes were low following a difficult start to the weekend.

Lewis Hamilton will be the man to beat in Sunday's Hungarian Grand Prix

"We didn't have an upgrade or anything like that. We made small tweaks to our rear wing and the front wing.

"But the car felt terrible yesterday and we did some really, really great work overnight and we were relieved to see that it felt good this morning, but not in shooting range of the other guys.

"They just seemed a little bit too, too far ahead for us."

When all was said and done and the chequered flag waved, Hamilton was the one too far ahead for the rest of the field. He starts tomorrow's Hungarian Grand Prix from pole position.