Hamilton: "Checked the car on Friday and found the problem"

Lewis Hamilton a mighty lap to achieve his 89th pole position of his career on Saturday afternoon. In very wet conditions he was more than a second ahead of all his competitors. And that on the Red Bull Ring, in time the shortest circuit of the Formula 1 calendar.

"It was a fantastic lap", says the world champion afterwards to Auto Motor und Sport and others. "My racing engineer gave me a nice gap and I took advantage of it. There were no mistakes in it. I couldn't have done better in these conditions. It was close to perfection. The lap reminds me of my drive at Silverstone 2008."

No more problems with kerbstones

A week earlier both Mercedes drivers had to finish the race very carefully. Both Bottas and Hamilton were strongly advised not to drive over the kerbstones, because the vibrations could damage the gearbox. That problem now seems to be solved.

"We checked the car twice and found the fault. We couldn't check it in the third practice session, but I immediately felt comfortable in the car in qualifying. The confidence was back"