Lewis Hamilton vows to be ‘aggressive’ after best Ferrari qualifying
Lewis Hamilton vows to attack at the start of the Mexico City Grand Prix.
Lewis Hamilton has vowed to be “aggressive” at the start of the Mexico City Grand Prix after sealing his best qualifying result as a Ferrari driver.
Seven-time world champion Hamilton will start Sunday’s 71-lap race at the Autodromo Hermanos Rodríguez from third on the grid behind pole sitter Lando Norris and Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc.
It marked Hamilton’s best grand prix qualifying performance since joining Ferrari, though he did claim pole position in the China sprint race in just his second competitive outing.
And Hamilton is looking to capitalise on the slipstream effect in Mexico City, with the run down to Turn 1 the longest on the entire calendar.
“For a moment I was P2 [on the grid] but the inside is actually not that nice, it’s quite dirty on the inside, so I’m quite grateful to be third and I hope that I can capitalise on that,” Hamilton told Sky Sports F1.
“Obviously, Charles has a new tyre, the same with Lando, but nevertheless P3 I think is not a bad position to start here because you can tow. So I’ll be quite aggressive, I want to move forwards somehow tomorrow.”
Hamilton will be aiming to end his 19-race streak without a podium in Mexico.
Hamilton ‘finally figuring out’ Ferrari
Hamilton was delighted to return to the top-three in qualifying after what has been a largely torrid debut season with Ferrari.
The 40-year-old Briton stated he is “finally figuring out how to drive” Ferrari’s 2025 car and heaped praise on the team for their improved processes.
"This is the first time we've both [Hamilton and Leclerc] been in the top three in qualifying this year and the team truly deserve it," Hamilton said.
"We are just working as hard as we can. We've not really moved the car forward necessarily in development, but we've extracted more from it and the processes are better.
“We continue to improve on our process - from the moment we arrive, to our debriefs, to the decisions we make as a team within engineering, within when we going out - all these different things. So I think we’re just 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 it forward 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. But I’m finally feeling like I’m getting there. So it's good.”
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