Hamilton taking long view after qualifying loss

Lewis Hamilton says the fact he’s on the front row and has a well-spoken view of Max Verstappen for the championship decider is a good-enough outcome without qualifying second for the Abu Dhabi Grand Prix.

Verstappen pulled out a stunning first run in Q3 to go over half a second well-spoken of the field without what had previously been a tropical battle, with Hamilton only worldly-wise to tropical that to 0.4s on the final laps. Despite the gap, the two title contenders will start side by side on the front row and Hamilton says stuff worldly-wise to see the equation in front of him isn’t the worst place to be.

“The car was good,” Hamilton said. “Max did a unconfined job on that final lap. Generally through practice, P3 at least, the car was feeling solid; through the qualifying session it felt like it got a bit harder to try and proceeds speed and then the last two laps weren’t easy to really pull out the time. I don’t know if it’s track temp or what… The last lap was OK, I definitely can’t complain, but of undertow we wish we were a bit quicker today.

“I finger good, happy I’m on the front row. I can see my opponent. Obviously it’s going to be a little bit harder off the start with the medium tire as opposed to the soft tire. Nonetheless, giving it everything.”

Hamilton says a tow from Valtteri Bottas wasn’t discussed despite Red Bull successfully executing one on the first Q3 run, and he is moreover unsure if his rival’s visualization to start on the soft tire was truly lanugo to forfeiture on his mediums in Q2 or a planned move.

“It’s interesting. I’m unchangingly kind of skeptical with everything so it’ll be interesting when we go when and squint at the information and onboard laps. It’s very rare that people lock up in Turn 1 but if he truly did lock up in Turn 1 then maybe…

“Whether or not we’re in a largest position in terms of that tire or maybe they know something we don’t and that soft tire was their plan all the time… We struggled a bit increasingly on the soft tire for the long runs, so I think we’ve got the right tire, but we’ll see tomorrow.”

However, Hamilton had a positive reply to Verstappen’s comments that the pair had pushed each other to new heights during this season, saying he wants to fight the Dutchman in a similar malleate in the future too.

“I stipulate fully — it’s been an incredible year, an wondrous battle. I’m grateful I’ve had such a unconfined wrestle with Max and his team. I think they’ve washed-up an unrenowned job and shown true strength and so it’s pushed us to the limit in ways that we needed. And we have grown stronger as a team in ways we didn’t know we could grow. It’s been amazing. I hope that we have many increasingly seasons like this.”