Hamilton ‘overwhelmed’ by pole after poor practice

2013 German Grand Prix

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Lewis Hamilton says he was surprised to be in contention for pole position for the German Grand Prix after being off the pace during practice.

The Mercedes driver was 1.2 seconds slower than Sebastian Vettel in the final practice session.

“It’s really overwhelming because I’ve been struggling,” Hamilton admitted after taking pole position. “The first run in P1 was really good, P2 and P3 were just disasters and it got even worse this morning.”

“We were miles off, we were a good eight tenths of a second off, I wasn’t comfortable with the car at all.”

“And we went back into the truck and we just worked hard, tried to analyse everything, made lots and lots of changes. And I just hoped it would work and fortunately the car was beneath me and I was able to put in the times we did.

“So I’m grateful for the work the guys did with me and again this is just down to all the hard work the team have put in.”

However Hamilton said he was concerned about the threat posed by the Red Bull drivers in the race:

“These guys are very good on their long runs, I hope that with my new set-up hopefully I’ll be as good and I hope we can give them a run for their money.”

2013 German Grand Prix

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    Keith Collantine
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    13 comments on “Hamilton ‘overwhelmed’ by pole after poor practice”

    1. great effort by Hamilton and his engineers. Watching the timing screens during P3, he could barely set a lap time, it looked like he would struggle to make q3, never mind take pole!

    2. I’d like to see his lap after a decent start to the weekend!

    3. Amazing effort by both Lewis and Mercedes.

      Hopefully the tyres hold up in the race tomorrow.

    4. Yea!

      Lewis Hamilton is and always has been my most favorite and the most genuine and emotive driver in Formula 1 since I’ve been a fan.

      So happy for him!

    5. Overwhelmed? The Mercedes has been the car to beat in qualifying all year.

      Maybe he’s picked up a thing or two from Alonso over the last few years–under promise and over deliver.

      1. Maybe you missed the part where they were struggling with the car in FP3…

        1. ^^ That’s what they said. Read what he wrote about “under-promise”. Had Rosberg been in Q3 he would have been right up there with Hamilton as well.

        2. They lost a lot of time in F3 trying to set the car up

    6. In spite of Nicole and the dog, I’m warming up to Hamilton.
      He made a bold move, which I think was more Schumacheresk, more about growing up than about money and he really is on it. I respect him more now.

      1. Well you don’t have worry about the Nicole part anymore…

    7. The Mercs have been dominant in qualifying all season long, so I doubt Hamilton was quite as surprised as he’s claiming. Vettel’s three poles this season all came in damp conditions – when it’s dry out the only question is which Merc will be on pole.

    8. People shouldn’t have doubted Lewis’ pace when Rosberg had 3 poles in a row. It’s still early in his Mercedes career, and there were suggestions of him performing below expectations. I feel he has done a fine job. OK, he hasn’t won like Rosberg, but he was unlucky last week, and his pace is looking impressive when it matters in qualifying, and he has been consistently clocking up the points.

    9. Great effort from Hamilton. I sense a cracker of a race battle between him and Vettel.

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