Lewis Hamilton has admitted that he threw away his chance of securing a second successive pole position in front of his home fans at
Silverstone this weekend through pushing too hard – but he has insisted that nothing remains out of the question on race day.
The erstwhile world championship leader – under pressure following a point-less last couple of races marred by a series of errors of judgment, and still battle-scarred from a bruising war with the British media – had never looked quite on the pace of pole-sitting McLaren-Mercedes team-mate
Heikki Kovalainen around the Northants circuit, and in Q3 let his over-exuberance get the better of him by going off-track on the exit of Priory, heavily compromising his next effort.
That has left him sitting just fourth on the grid, almost eight tenths of a second adrift of Kovalainen and also behind chief title rival
Kimi Raikkonen but, just as crucially, significantly ahead of fifth row starters
Felipe Massa and
Robert Kubica, both of whom endured a troubled time of things in Q3. The Stevenage ace is adamant that all is far from yet lost.
“Congratulations to Heikki on his first
Formula 1 pole position,” Hamilton said afterwards. I felt comfortable in the car and the speed was there; however, on my first flying lap in Q3 I ran a bit wide at the exit of Priory and went onto the gravel.
“Obviously I just pushed a little bit too hard and it's a pity that I missed the front row. However, with our strategy and the predicted rain for tomorrow's race, everything will be possible and I very much look forward to racing here in front of my home crowd.”
The six-time grand prix winner – desperate to make that figure seven in front of the highly partisan crowd this weekend – was also backed to bounce back by
McLaren team principal Ron Dennis and Mercedes-Benz Motorsport Vice-President Norbert Haug.
“Lewis made a small mistake in sector three, and his P4 grid position doesn't therefore reflect his latent pace,” Dennis acknowledged, “but he remains confident that he can put in a strong performance tomorrow.
