Hamilton ‘never felt under threat’ from soft tyre runners at F1 start in Qatar

Hamilton's life was made easier when Max Verstappen and Valtteri Bottas were hit with grid penalties ahead of the race for yellow flag incidents in qualifying.

This promoted Pierre Gasly and Fernando Alonso to second and third on the grid - both started on the soft tyre, while Hamilton was on the mediums.

Typically, the softer tyres has a small advantage at the start with many expecting Hamilton to be challenged by the duo behind into the first corner.

Hamilton said that there was “a little bit to gain from the soft” at the start of the race but had it covered when defending the lead of the race.

“A little bit, there’s a little bit to gain from the soft, but I felt I wasn’t massively under threat,” Hamilton said. “I managed to cover the ground just off the start and after that was kind of just head down and focused on bridging the gap.

“I saw at Turn 6 Max was already in fourth so knew he was past my teammate, didn’t know Valtteri had had such a bad getaway, then after that was just focused on trying to maximise the points for the team.

“I was feeling strong, I think they had relatively decent pace but I was able to manage the pace, so it wasn’t a problem.”

Back-to-back wins for Hamilton has allowed him to close the gap to Verstappen to just eight points with two rounds to go.

“It was just an amazing, this past three weeks have been so difficult for everyone, with some big distances between all the races and the team did such an amazing job, particularly these past two races,” he added.

“Today the race was made a lot easier with the penalties the guys got for the mistake they made yesterday. That made it a lot more straightforward and yeah was just managing the gap at the front and keeping the car safe, and maximise and bring the car home.”

Unlike Bottas who suffered a puncture on Lap 33, Hamilton had no concerns about his tyres.

“Nope, I was managing quite well, wasn’t on any of the kerbs, so wasn’t concerning for me,” he explained.

“I assumed they were coming from people running on the kerbs but I was never near any of them, wasn’t an issue. Grateful for my team, thanks to the men and women back at the factories who have been pushing so much to bridge the gap to our competitors.

“It’s a great feeling but there’s no time to celebrate, no time to rest, we keep our head down and keep chasing.”