Hamilton needed "absolute perfection" to beat Bottas in Hungary

Lewis Hamilton claims he needed to be absolutely perfect to beat Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas to pole position for the Hungarian Grand Prix.

Mercedes smashed the field by almost a second at the Hungaroring, with Hamilton, in particular, claiming the 90th pole of his Formula 1 career with a new lap record at the circuit of one minute 13.447secs.

Appreciating Bottas keeps him honest, with the Finn just a tenth of a second down, Hamilton said: “Valtteri doesn’t make it easy for me at all, so it requires absolute perfection doing laps, and qualifying like that is something I enjoy the most.”

When informed it was his 90th pole, Hamilton added: “I have to pinch myself, it just doesn’t register."

The laps posted by Hamilton and Bottas were remarkable, with the car appearing to be on rails at times given how the duo could throw the W11 into the corners.

“She’s definitely not on rails," said Hamilton. "I’m sure it looks like that maybe, compared to some other people, but it was really nicely hooked up today, and not far off the rails.”

Hamilton heads into the race with the chance to equal Michael Schumacher's record of the most wins at a single circuit, but the seven-time Hungarian Grand Prix winner says the job is far from done.

“It’s a long run down to turn one," said Hamilton. "Nothing’s a given here, so we’ve just got to do the work this evening, and ultimately I’ve got to deliver at the start tomorrow. It is quite a long race.

“We don’t know what this weather is going to do for us tomorrow, but I’ll have my head down and will be focussing as hard as I can to bring a one-two home for the team."

Before you go...

Protested brake ducts the only issue with "clear cut" Racing Point - FIA

Related

More F1 news

Latest F1 news

Shock plans for F1 Danish Grand Prix emerge

• 53 minutes ago

Nurburgring 24 Hours: Meet Max Verstappen's team-mates for iconic race this weekend

• 1 hour ago

F1 News Today: Aston Martin announcement 'expected' as team reveal major upgrade package

• 2 hours ago

George Russell's brazen F1 claim is already coming back to bite him at Mercedes

• 2 hours ago

Inside Max Verstappen's radical preparation for Nurburgring 24 Hours race: No sleep for F1 star

• 3 hours ago

Red Bull placed on red alert as FIA president confirms multi-team ownership investigation

• Today 13:55