Lewis Hamilton expressed his own shock and surprise after claiming a dominant pole position for Sunday's Singapore Grand Prix.
On a weekend where his Mercedes team was expected to struggle, instead the current championship leader produced a stunning first lap of 1m36.015s in Q3 to smash the circuit record and finish three-tenths clear of Max Verstappen.
“Wow, wow!” he proclaimed in the post-session interview. “That was a hard qualifying session. That lap felt like magic. I don’t know where it came from but it all came together.
“I don’t think there was a moment in the lap that was wide or any problems. It was just perfectly to the limit. It felt like one of the best laps I remember feeling.
“Honestly I’m super overwhelmed. My heart is racing."
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It was thought the key to his incredible time was finding the sweet spot with tyre performance on the very sensitive Hypersoft compound which is being used at Marina Bay for the first time.
“Tyres are no silver bullet, but it’s just a few things we’ve understood since Spa in where we’ve got our advantage from," Mercedes motorsport boss Toto Wolff claimed later.
The Austrian too was left in awe of his lead driver, however.
"Yeah, it’s stardust… I can’t explain what happened on that (Hamilton) lap. He’s just an exceptional individual and an exceptional driver," he said.
