Lewis Hamilton has credited his maiden Formula 1 pole position for Ferrari to the changes he made in approaching the current Mexico Grand Prix weekend. The seven-time world champion pipped former Mercedes team-mate George Russell by 0.009s at Autodromo Hermanos Rodriguez to take first on Sunday’s starting grid. It was a record-extending 105th career pole for Hamilton but his first since the 2023 Hungarian Grand Prix when he was driving for the Silver Arrows, moving to Ferrari only last year.
“I came here on Wednesday, which I never ever do. But we really wanted to kind of look at where we've been the last few races, where it's kind of gone wrong, where we can improve,” Hamilton said. The team made a slight tweak to how they worked this weekend, focusing on wind direction, tyres, and track temperature drops. “But to get the pole, finally get a pole with Ferrari, it just takes me back to when I was a kid sitting on the sofa watching Michael [Schumacher] get those poles,” Hamilton added.
The achievement comes after many missed opportunities in recent grands prix for Ferrari, who would show promising pace in practice only to under-deliver in qualifying. Hamilton emphasized the importance of getting the tyres working in their optimal window, a challenge he has particularly struggled with since the switch to 18-inch tyres. “I think I was able to utilise a couple more tools that I've not used for like 13 years and then I think, just there, as I said, just got the tyres in the perfect window on that out-lap,” he concluded.
Source: Autosport F1 News · Summarized by HeadlinesBriefing