Lewis Hamilton was described as “extraterrestrial” by Mercedes boss Toto Wolff after his dominant pole for the Belgian Grand Prix.
The Briton secured his fifth P1 start at Spa-Francorchamps, and 93rd in total, with a new lap record of 1m41.252s to finish half a second clear of teammate Valtteri Bottas.
Immediately after returning to parc ferme, Hamilton paid tribute to actor Chadwick Boseman, who died overnight on Friday, by using his Black Panther pose and admitted he was the inspiration he took with him out onto the track.
“It was a very clean session. Every lap was getting better and better,” the six-time world champion commented.
“It is a really important pole for me. I woke up to the saddest news of Chadwick passing away and it has been such a heavy year for all of us and that news really broke me.
“It was not easy to get back in focus with that hanging in my heart but I wanted to get back up there because what he has done for our people will be remembered forever.
“He was such a shining light. Wakanda Forever. I just wanted to come out today and drive to perfection.
“In Q3 the first lap was ace, and I thought I was not going to be able to beat that. But then I have been struggling in Turn 1 all weekend, I got that and then eked it out for the rest of the lap, that was a very, very good lap.”
Revealing what he thought made the difference, Hamilton believes choosing to focus on his own lap rather than risk getting involved in any slipstream shenanigans was crucial.
“Yeah, I studied that and of course there have been times where we have had to try to get a tow,” he said.
“You’ve got these three difficult sections where you’ve got the straight line in the first section, which is pretty straightforward, but getting the right wing level here is not so easy and some, as you can see, are really quick in the first and last sector but not so good in the middle sector.
“We are not the strongest I would say in the first and the last but the middle is really, really strong and I think for me this weekend it was my choice to go first or second out of Valtteri and I chose to go first.
“I just wanted to be out in the clean air not having to worry about people up ahead of me, getting a gap in the last corner, wondering whether it’s four or eight seconds gap – because you’re still getting a tow from someone at seven seconds behind and I didn’t want anything coming in my way so it worked out perfectly I think.”
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The half-second gap between Hamilton and Bottas once again raised questions about the Finn’s performance but for Wolff, it was simply a case of Lewis being on another planet.
“No, I don’t think there’s any psychological reason for the gap today,” commented the Austrian.
“I think overall Valtteri struggled with the setup, particularly in Q3. I’ve just been talking to him and you can see that on the data there’s just a little bit more sliding exiting the corners and that obviously adds up – that makes the difference.
“But I don’t want to downplay or diminish anything of Lewis’ performance which was extraterrestrial today, again on these fast, traditional circuit he’s just in a league of his own.”
