Hamilton made a clear choice: "No desire to be stuck in traffic"

On tracks with long straights, it is often important for drivers to be in a slipstream during qualifying. Lewis Hamilton, however, deliberately chose to drive in free air on the track.

While a tow can make a big difference in qualifying, it can also cause several problems. For example, during the third free practice session, there were complaints of traffic jams.

For Lewis Hamilton it wasn't a difficult choice to decide what to do. "Every weekend Valtteri Bottas and I have a choice. One weekend it's his choice to go out first or second and the other weekend it's my choice. This weekend I was able to decide and I chose to go out first, to drive in the open air and not get stuck behind other cars in the last corner," the Brit said at the press conference after qualifying.

Traffic and yellow flags

"I think that choice worked well. I think there is potentially a small advantage to being in a slipstream, but then you're in equal danger of being stuck behind others, someone making a mistake and causing a yellow flag and all sorts of other things. I deliberately made sure I didn't have that problem so I could just drive my best lap possible," the six-time world champion explains.

At next week's Italian Grand Prix the same issue is likely to re-emerge and hopefully not with the same result as last year, where traffic jams in Q3 caused huge issues.