Hamilton pleased with P5 but has a way more ambitious goal ahead of Spanish GP

It certainly hasn't been an easy start to the season for Lewis Hamilton, who has consistently been outqualified by Charles Leclerc so far. However, although fifth place may not be a remarkable result for a seven-time world champion, the Englishman can still be satisfied with having at least qualified ahead of his new teammate, who chose to stay in the garage for the final Q3 run.

The Briton will start from the third row in tomorrow’s Grand Prix, just behind Max Verstappen and the ever-fast George Russell, who has been consistently quick in qualifying this year.

''I knew it would be a difficult qualifying'', Hamilton said after qualifying. ''We only had 4 new sets of Softs for this qualifying session compared to others who had 5, but we made that choice and I think we can put up a good fight starting from P7 tomorrow. Our race pace looks good and we have a different selection of tyres available to us compared to those starting around us, so we will see if our decision pays off''.

However, the goal is to finally get back to a podium position, as he said in the post-qualifying interview with Sky F1: “I am looking forward to it. I did get a bit of a long run yesterday, so it's definitely going to be close between everybody. It's amazing how close everybody is in qualifying and how half a tenth can put you from sixth to 11th. That's pretty mad''.

Shifting the focus on tomorrow's race, Hamilton added: “The long run is going to be challenging tomorrow for everybody. Most people have softs and one medium, and Charles and a couple of other people have two mediums''.

Speaking of which tyres and strategy can make a difference, Lewis added: ''We'll see. The key is going to be getting a good start. My goal is to try and get a podium. I haven't had a podium for God knows how long, so that's my target.”