Lewis Hamilton questions soft tyre start choice for Eifel F1 Grand Prix

Lewis Hamilton says he wanted to start on the medium Formula 1 tyre for the Eifel Grand Prix.

Hamilton set his initial Q2 time on the more durable medium compound, but both Mercedes switched to the soft tyres to ensure they progressed into the pole position shootout.

Hamilton revealed he wanted to start on the mediums but Mercedes overruled the decision.

"I could have got through on that tyre," Hamilton said. "I wanted to start on it, just because I always like to do something different, but the team chose for us to both be on the same tyre.

"We'll see whether it was the right choice tomorrow. I'm sure it was the right choice. The other one would have been a little bit harder."

Hamilton held the advantage over teammate Valtteri Bottas in Q2, ending it 0.5s ahead of the Finn but ultimately was beaten to pole position by just over 0.2s.

The championship leader admits the balance of his Mercedes didn’t feel as good in Q3 as it did in Q2.

"I'll have to go back [and review the data], but definitely Q2 felt good, and when I got to Q3, it just didn't feel good, either run, so just the grip didn't feel the same," Hamilton added.

While Hamilton wasn’t sure the medium tyre was the way to go, Bottas is happy to be starting the race on the soft after struggling to make the more durable compound work.

"When we had it, it was a pretty green track, so it was hard to get a proper read of the tyre, how it's behaving," Bottas said. "For me, that run was quite poor. I couldn't get enough temperature from the out lap on the tyres. I'm happy to be on the soft."