Lewis Hamilton issues ‘aggressive’ warning after season-best qualifying

Lewis Hamilton has promised that he’ll be aggressive in the run to the first corner in Sunday’s Formula 1 Mexico City Grand Prix.

Hamilton qualified a strong third place in what was his best Saturday performance since joining Ferrari at the start of the season.

Lewis Hamilton promises to be ‘racy’ on the run to Turn 1

Hamilton will line up on the second row of the grid in Sunday’s race, directly behind pole-sitter Lando Norris.

It’s a potentially advantageous position, placing the seven-time champion on the clean side of the track and in a slipstream ahead of the more than 700 metre run to the first corner.

“I definitely want to be racy tomorrow,” Hamilton declared.

“I don’t have anything to lose, but he [Norris] does. Yeah, we’ll be quite aggressive, I’m pretty sure, and hopefully we’ll be close enough to put up a good fight.”

It’s been a trying campaign for Hamilton since joining the Scuderia, with the winningest driver in the history of the world championship still chasing a maiden podium in red.

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The result in Mexico, Hamilton suggested, was a result not of any singular improvement, but the combined efforts of both his team’s continued efforts and his own acclimatisation to the nuances of the Ferrari.

“We continue to improve on our process, and processes are from the moment we arrive to our debriefs, to the decisions we make as a team, within engineering, within when we’re going out, all these different things,” he explained.

“We’re just continuous and continuously tightening up on some of those areas.

“And I think just how Charles and I have worked together to move the car and develop the car forwards, I think, has been really positive over the race weekends.

“Our cars are pretty much identical now, and I’m finally figuring out how to drive this car that Charles has been fortunate to drive for the past seven years in terms of the characteristics.

“I’m finally feeling like I’m slowly getting there, so it’s good.”

The net result has been the best qualifying performance for Hamilton as a Ferrari driver.

“It’s been a long time since I’ve been up here,” he said of his appearance in the top three.

“Really grateful to the team for the hard work and just the constant effort through the year.

“Of course, I wish we had this experience earlier in the year, but the fact is that we’re continuing to improve and continuing to stay positive, so it’s great to be up here.”

Additional reporting by Elizabeth Blackstock

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