The world champion gave an intriguing insight into his psyche today when discussing his evident frustration after losing pole position to Nico Rosberg.

Hamilton said that his negative reaction, which included short answers, was simply because he felt he had not done the best possible job - and not because being beaten was painful.

"No, it doesn't hurt," Hamilton said. "It's like when you guys write a shit story, you get pissed off about it. Or you make a mistake.

"I'm not down, firstly. I've got a race to win tomorrow. I express again, when any of you guys are pissed off about something, your own performance, you're not happy.

"This is not an emotional game or anything like that. It's just literally, today I was quickest – I brought it to qualifying, I was quickest, quickest, quickest, quickest, and I was easily quickest at the end, and I didn't deliver myself.

"That's something I have to handle and deal with, and that's just how I deal with it.

"You know when you kind of kick yourself a little bit? That's where I am. But there's nothing I can do about the past, I'm moving forwards now, and tomorrow I can make a difference. And I will."

Hamilton added that also felt that he had let down his team.

"Reflecting on my performance today I also have a lot of guys back at the factory and also my main guys here, my mechanics, who work to build my car, who were hoping to get pole.

"I've got my engineers who work until 1-2am every night, it's a lot of weight when you don't deliver the way they have delivered, so that's where I am in my head."