It seems like the debut circuit has not gone easy on Lewis Hamilton at the beginning of this weekend race. After the startling achievement of Pierre Gasly at the previous weekend in Italy, the Formula One crew staged this weekend at the same destination country again- The Mugello circuit in Tuscany, Italy.
🏁 END OF QUALIFYING 🏁
Hamilton 📸
Bottas
Verstappen
Albon
Leclerc
Perez
Stroll
Ricciardo
Sainz
Ocon#TuscanGP 🇮🇹 #F1 pic.twitter.com/tSbmx0xLmN— Formula 1 (@F1) September 12, 2020
The consecutive lead positions at the practice sessions were acquired by Lewis Hamilton’s very own teammate Valtteri Bottas followed by Max Verstappen for most of them. The row count did not continue for long though, Hamilton grasped the entire race pretty soon, by the Qualifying round. He took the lead at the final qualifying round and was the earliest bird to witness the pole position.
The debut of the circuit was not the most charming for the ‘Mercedes’ Charm’- Lewis Hamilton. Valtteri Bottas took the maiden pole position at FP1 followed by Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and the Italian Giants -Scuderia Ferraris’ Charles Leclerc who fortunately witnessed the third pole at their team’s commemoration of the 1000th Grand Prix. The FP2 was no different for Mercedes, Bottas again got to the pole first followed by his teammate Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen. Elated as much might be the Finn, it was his last victory for the day at the FP3 when his lead was followed by Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton. The qualifying race was the twist of the climax.
Lewis Hamilton stumbled upon certain hurdles
With the peculiarity being at the peak, Hamilton consecutively faced drawbacks at the Italian circuit of Mugello after the pit penalty that costed the crown the last weekend at Monza. The pole stance was witnessed by Bottas on a row and that frustrated the capable Hamilton to the core.
He said to have felt a ‘pressure’ that was ‘higher than ever’ at the Mugello circuit.
🏁 END OF QUALIFYING 🏁
Hamilton 📸
Bottas
Verstappen
Albon
Leclerc
Perez
Stroll
Ricciardo
Sainz
Ocon#TuscanGP 🇮🇹 #F1 pic.twitter.com/tSbmx0xLmN— Formula 1 (@F1) September 12, 2020
The reason stated was his first time being at the track, and since he was unknown to all the nooks and corners of the track, the race got out of his hand and effected his pole reach. Coping up was not that difficult for him though. After three practices he champed the qualifying races finally, setting a record time indeed in the final qualifying term.
And we're down to the last 10…
All the details from Q2 👀#TuscanGP 🇮🇹 #F1 pic.twitter.com/Qz09Tz5FP6
— Formula 1 (@F1) September 12, 2020
Hamilton has marked the track with extremes of struggle sessions to get to witness the pole at the qualifying round finally. He confessed how tough it was for him at the Mugello circuits, “This weekend has been so hard because Valtteri out the box was generally just much quicker, I was really uncomfortable with the balance of the car and I was just not driving that well all-day( on 11th September 2020).”
The Britton further stated, “In my past, I always felt that my strength was learning a circuit quite quickly,” Hamilton said when asked about his work to find time after Friday practice, where he had ended the first day of the event’s track action with the second-fastest time. And for this one, we went on the simulator, which I never do, and [I] don’t feel like I benefitted particularly. But then getting here there was a lot of work that… the pressure was incredibly high. Because I’m going out there doing laps and I’m struggling to find the limit in certain sectors. And Valtteri was miles ahead, really, in some of those areas. So [it felt like] the pressure was higher than ever because if I hadn’t done the work then I wouldn’t have got the result that we got at the end.”
The difficulties were enough for anyone to battle up and conquer the race again but the champ proved himself to be exceptionally well trained to regain his lost power again to boost up his pace. The number of hurdles he stumbled upon was uncountable until he stood up again.
How effortlessly Hamilton gained back his dominance over the race
Though beating Bottas did not look incredibly arduous it was one but the end result was satisfying. With an enormous amount of proficiency and mastery of the entire circuit, he conquered the qualifying race finally.
The ‘Billion Dollar Man’ aka Lewis Hamilton stated, “I had to do a lot of studying last night to take steps back and understand and then come in today with a better frame of mind. I stayed positive, kept my head down, kept studying even between the sessions, and I was able to really execute the last two sessions.”
He continued further about his learning on the entire course and it’s different ways, “There’s an incredible amount of detail that you have to go into, last night dissecting every single corner basically, and the sector, really trying to fine-tune that setup. There’s a real science for it, and that’s why I’ve got so much respect for all these drivers. Not just the ability to drive, but to understand these things… and be engineers at the end of the day.” His final realization towards the end of his discerning session was reckoning his strength to get by heart the entire circuit in a short duration, “Normally I thought one of my strengths was learning a circuit quite quickly.”
QUALI REPORT: @LewisHamilton soars to Mugello pole#TuscanGP 🇮🇹 #F1 https://t.co/mA8eblGSyR
— Formula 1 (@F1) September 12, 2020
He expressed his extreme satisfaction after beating his teammate Valtteri Bottas. Though effortless it seemed Hamilton had a lot of hard work behind this victory that marked the 95th pole in his racing career at Formula One.
With immense high pressure and rows of failed attempts he finally achieved his power to claim his position back at the first lead again. It is highly expected of him to ace the race of Tuscany Grand Prix by the entire fan club on 13th September 2020.
Now just 5️⃣ short of claiming a century of poles 😮@LewisHamilton picked up yet another @pirellisport Pole Position Award at Mugello! 💪
#TuscanGP 🇮🇹 #F1 pic.twitter.com/6OIGWPQdtx
— Formula 1 (@F1) September 12, 2020
