Hamilton rues ‘over-egging’ final Q3 lap in Sochi

Lewis Hamilton was quick to praise Mercedes Formula 1 teammate Valtteri Bottas after losing out in the battle for pole position on Saturday in Russia, saying he “over-egged” his final qualifying lap.

After leading FP2 and FP3 at the Sochi Autodrom, Hamilton seemed to be on course for his 80th career pole after topping both Q1 and Q2, only to slip four-thousandths of a second behind Bottas on their initial Q3 runs.

Hamilton improved by three-tenths of a second through the first sector of his final Q3 lap, but made a mistake at Turn 7 that forced him to abandon his effort. This allowed Bottas to take pole for Mercedes by 0.145 seconds, with Hamilton P2 on the grid.

“Firstly big congratulations to Valtteri, he’s been driving very well all weekend. He did the better job,” Hamilton said after qualifying.

“[It’s a] great track, intense naturally as it always is. The last two laps were not special at all! But you can’t always get it right. at least we’re still in the fight for the race tomorrow, the team did a great job for a one-two.”

Speaking about his error at Turn 7 on his final qualifying lap, Hamilton explained that he was pushing to try and make up time through the middle sector after struggling there throughout the race weekend.

“Q1 was really good and Q2 wasn’t so great. Just generally throughout the weekend it’s been a bit up and down in that sector, but I’ve been quick in the first and third,” Hamilton said.

“The first lap in Q3 was down three-tenths in the middle sector, but I was down in the first and last. So I knew I had to push quite a lot because I knew also he would gain time.

“So rather than another three-tenths, it was half a second I had to improve, I just over-egged it a little bit.

“I think I picked up a bit of dirt on my outside tyres, and there was just less grip there for the next corner.”

Hamilton enters Sunday’s race with a 40-point lead over Ferrari rival Sebastian Vettel in the F1 drivers’ championship. With Vettel third on the grid and set to follow the same tyre calls as Hamilton, starting the race on Ultrasofts, Hamilton thinks strategy will be key.

“I think all of our goals is to try and win this race. It’s a difficult track to overtake,” Hamilton said.

“The start will be an interesting one, and after that it’s really about strategy, which we’re all pretty much on the same.

“We’ll just give it everything we’ve got.”