Lewis Hamilton praised teammate Valtteri Bottas after he was pipped to pole position at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
The six-time world champion had led the only practice session at Imola in the morning, but the Finn gradually improved throughout qualifying and went fastest by just 0.097s with his final effort in Q3.
Upon returning to parc ferme, Bottas admitted the Italian circuit had exceeded his expectations and revealed the keys to his pole lap.
“I’m really enjoying this track, when you push flat out it’s beautiful,” he said. “I knew I had to improve in the last lap and found those small gains that we needed.
“It’s a great feeling when you can find those and I definitely had the shakes after. It was good fun.
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“For me, the Turns 2-3 [Tamburello] was something I was working on all day and I only got there at the end,” Bottas added.
“Also in the last two corners [Rivazza] I was struggling all day, every time I tried to go for it I struggled with the instability of the car but I knew in the last lap I had to try and I risked it and the car just managed to turn in nicely- it was good!”
Looking ahead to the race, with Hamilton already warning overtaking will be difficult at Imola, Bottas admits the start will be crucial.
“Yes, it’s going to be good fun,” he stated. “It’s one of the longest runs in the calendar into Turn 1 so no doubt Lewis and Max [Verstappen] will be chasing me, but it’s a good place to start from. The pace is good, so, game on.”
As for Hamilton, reflecting on Q3, the Briton wasn’t happy with either of his attempts.
“It was a pretty piss-poor lap by myself,” he told Sky Sports’ Johnny Herbert. “But these things happen. You can’t always get it perfect.
“Valtteri did a great job. It was a real challenge out there but I enjoyed it.”
So far this season Hamilton leads Bottas 9-4 in qualifying, with Mercedes maintaining their 100% pole record on Saturday.
But after losing out at Imola, Lewis highlighted how strong his teammate is over a single lap.
“I don’t really think I need to say much, I mean, jeez, he just got pole position, he’s ahead of me,” Hamilton said.
“I have more poles than anyone here so it’s not like I’m a slowpoke and so he’s doing an amazing job.
“I think his result today speaks for itself and I don’t really need to say much more. He does his talking on the track and that’s the great thing about Valtteri.
“I don’t think there are many people that can do what he’s doing if I’m really honest. I’ve got a huge amount of respect for him.”