"You were not the only ones who were worried," the Briton joked with journalists after qualifying had finished, "It was a little bit nerve-wracking for sure, but fortunately we got through. I managed to secure a good spot on the front row but, obviously, [it was] not as smooth sailing as some other people.

"I just missed my first lap. The car didn't stop into turn one, so I missed out on that lap and, unfortunately, I didn't have enough fuel to do an extra lap, so I had to come in - and then I went into the weighing scales. Then I had to come back in, get everything cooled down and everything changed and go back out. And then, when I went back out, I got stuck in traffic. It was just one of those things. It was very, very fortunate that I got through and I'm happy with the result as a result of that."

Denying that only doing one lap in Q1 had hindered him - he had remained in the pits because he had been half a second faster than anyone else at that point - Hamilton admitted that he had found it hard to choose between the two Bridgestone tyre options.

"It was actually quite a tricky decision to make, simply because, normally, there is a relatively big difference between the two compounds, or noticeable difference, but today both tyres were very similar, [except that] the option tyre doesn't seem to be lasting the whole lap," he reflected, "Fortunately, I think everyone pretty much went for the harder and it seemed to do the job.

"I remember that the first lap I did wasn't particularly fantastic. The last sector was good but, in the first two, I was a little bit cautious. The next time I came through, I think I improved the first couple of corners, but then I lost a bit of time through turn five. Then, the rest of the lap was pretty much the same pace as my best time. I think I may have improved it slightly, but it wasn't enough."