Hamilton hopes to 'apply pressure' to Norris and Verstappen: 'It'd be mega'

Mercedes's fortunes change: 'We were looking very poor'

After crossing the line in third place, the seven-time world champion reflected on his weekend as a whole during the post-qualifying press conference. "Wouldn’t say I’m surprised through the weekend so far," Hamilton began. "We were looking, I was looking, particularly, very poor. This morning and all of yesterday, we were 1.2 seconds off these guys. So, we arrived with a car that was massively understeery, and we just couldn't dial any in. No matter what we did, just nothing changed. We made changes overnight, came here today, pretty much the same thing, and I was definitely shocked to see that we were still 1.2 seconds behind Lando again," Hamilton revealed. 

Hamilton: Changes made were 'like night and day'

Of course, the day improved for Hamilton. His teammate George Russell wasn't too happy with his car in qualifying, but still managed to qualify just behind Hamilton in fourth. The 105-time Grand Prix winner explains how his team approached the crucial qualifying hour at the Marina Bay Street Circuit. "Then we just kept our heads down, kept not giving up. We made some more changes and got into this session, and it was like night and day. Such a big difference. The car was all of a sudden alive and, it would go where I wanted to go. So, it was looking really strong throughout qualifying, and I think obviously with the crash in Q3, it made it difficult for all of us to put that final lap together. I think my lap was also nothing special, very difficult to get the tyres perfect and not overslide, and I had a lot of snaps. So, I think with a better job, maybe we could have been front row. But still really, really happy."

Hamilton hoping to 'apply pressure' to Norris and Verstappen

Hamilton, therefore, heads into race day in a positive mood. "Just to be up here with these guys, (Lando Norris and Max Verstappen) great drivers, I've not been up here for a while, and yeah, qualifying has been a nightmare for quite a long time. So it feels great to be up here. I feel very grateful and very happy. I think from here, George and I are in the second row, so hopefully from here, we can apply pressure to these two, and to even be ahead of another McLaren and another Red Bull and also the Ferraris is mega considering how fast the Ferraris are, particularly are here. I hope that we can hold on to these guys tomorrow." Hamilton concluded.

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