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“With Red Bull really pushing to change the rules for the engine, and F1 or the FIA trying to slow us down, they handled it very, very well,” says Hamilton after climbing to pole at Monza with the F1 lap at medium speed. highest.
By James Galloway
Last Updated: 09/05/20 6:01 pm
2:41
Sky F1’s Karun Chandhok takes a look at Lewis Hamilton’s fastest lap that earned him pole position in Italy
“No party. No problem,” declared Mercedes after dominating the Italian GP qualifying despite a ban on so-called ‘party modes’, with Lewis Hamilton giving the fastest lap in Formula 1 history. .
Saturday’s session was the first time that all teams were unable to change engine modes during qualifying, with a single power setting now being used from the start of Q1 to the end of the race, meaning that Mercedes ditched what was widely recognized as a particularly powerful short-use top power output.
But the effective rule change did not make a substantial difference to the world champions’ dominance of F1 qualifying, with Hamilton and Bottas blocking the front row for the sixth consecutive race with an eight-tenths advantage over the field. second.
“I really do congratulate all the guys in the factory,” Hamilton told Sky Sports F1, which has not been convinced by the reasoning given for the issuance of the FIA technical directive.
“With Red Bull really pushing for the rules to be changed for the engine, and Formula 1 or the FIA trying to slow us down, they handled it very, very well. They kept their heads down and kept working hard.”
2:26 Lewis Hamilton praised his Mercedes team after securing pole position and suggested that Red Bull is trying to slow them down by banning the ‘party mode’ engine from Formula 1.
“This is really the result of the incredible work those guys do, really proud to be a part of that incredible network.”
The FIA has said it made the change so that it could more easily monitor the performance of all engines, but some have suggested that Mercedes clearly had more to lose from the change, particularly in qualifying.
Bottas, who finished 0.069 seconds behind Hamilton, said at the post-qualifying press conference: “The car felt good, the engine felt good, and as I said before, it should be even better in the race. So no I’m sure how happy Red Bull are now with this engine change. But I don’t know. “
When asked by Sky F1 on Friday if they had just been pushing for change, Red Bull boss Christian Horner said: “No, not at all. Ferrari was also very vocal. Anything that brings the field closer is positive for Formula 1. We’ve also had it when we raced at the front end previously. At the end of the day, it’s the same for everyone, but there’s no guarantee how it will affect one engine manufacturer over another. “
1:09 Valtteri Bottas believes he will have a chance to overtake his Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton at the Italian Grand Prix, who qualified on pole at Monza.
Hamilton and Mercedes claim another record
Hamilton’s career pole 94 also brought another record for the driver and the champion F1 team.
Riding the 3.6-mile Monza track in a pole time of 1: 18.887, Hamilton posted an average speed of 164.267 mph.
That broke the previous record of 163.785 mph set by then-Ferrari driver Kimi Raikkonen at Monza in 2018.
Hamilton, while pleased with his performance, said his laps weren’t as exciting as those in Q3 at Spa last weekend, when he beat Bottas to pole by half a second.
“They were very good, but it wasn’t Spa. Definitely the lap at Spa was one of my best,” said Hamilton. “I think Singapore [2018] and Spa are the best two I can remember.
“These are very clean. The whole session was very, very clean. Obviously, Valtteri is closer than I would like.
“I think on my last lap I lost a tenth, I think in that middle sector, which was a bit frustrating. I could see it was going away, but Valtteri did a very good job today.
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