“Generally, it went very well and, of course, we can always try to improve.
“We’re not there to make it sit on rails so we’ve got to take it over the edge or just hold it on the edge of that cliff through the whole lap and that’s the fun of what we do. “Our job is to put the car where it is most uncomfortable,” Hamilton said, having claimed pole at Albert Park.
#Melbourne f1 2017 drivers
In the end just under three-tenths was the gap between the two drivers on their final laps in the third session.
#Melbourne f1 2017 driver
Hamilton said he was pushing hard to see off a determined resurgence by Ferrari and particularly from Vettel, to take the 62nd pole position of his career, continuing an exceptionally strong run in the single lap discipline, with the British driver having secured the top spot in the last four races of 2016. Albert Park is not a typical circuit so reading too much into qualifying here is a dangerous game but that Ferrari have delivered on the form they showed in testing and have clearly closed the gap to their rivals is certainly a positive sign to take from what was a thrilling battle. The new rules are a reboot for the formula, with a focus on making the cars faster, more physically challenging to drive and, it was hoped, to make the competition across the field much closer than it has been for the previous three seasons. As it transpired when they finally went head to head in the first properly competitive session of 2017, it was Hamilton and Mercedes who still had the advantage, having already enjoyed a remarkable period of dominance in winning the drivers’ and constructors’ championships for the past three years.īut while Hamilton and the Silver Arrows taking pole in Albert Park – his sixth at the circuit – was a clear sign the team have not dropped the ball in adapting to the new regulations, it was heartening that Vettel pushed him so hard and better still that the German was optimistic that there was more to come on race day. In the buildup to the Formula One season-opener here in Melbourne, Hamilton and Vettel had both gone to some effort to cast the other as favourite for the sport’s new era.
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