Lewis Hamilton says there was no point for Mercedes to start the race on soft tyres as they would inevitably be overtaken by the Ferraris even if they qualified ahead.

“I think the team did a great job to put us on the mediums,” said Hamilton, who qualified second for today’s race.

“Naturally [between] the two tyres there’s obviously a delta and the softer the tyre the better the start. So it will be a little bit tough off the start.

“But even if we were in the lead, if we were on pole for example, they are just so fast on the straights by the time we get to turn one, which is the little kink, they blast past us with the jet fuel, whatever it is.”

Hamilton hopes running a different strategy to Ferrari will give Mercedes the opportunity to attack.

“It is about strategy, which is why we are on a different tyre and I hope that we can utilise that and keep the pressure on. If you’ve seen the couple of races we’ve had, we’ve been right with them, but I’m hoping we can really give them a good fight.”

Ferrari set the quickest times at the beginning of Q3 but Hamilton managed to split them and claim a place on the front row of the grid with his final run. He said he’s been pleased with his recent qualifying efforts even though he hasn’t taken pole position since the summer break.

“Honestly I feel like that maybe the last couple of [qualifying] laps have felt worthy, like pole-worthy, in terms of how this has come together and optimising within the car,” he said.

“Obviously they are faster than us and Charles [Leclerc] has done a good job. But I mean in terms of being as close to the limit as possible, I think I’ve just been getting more and more comfortable with the car, I think in this second half of the season. A little bit more comfortable with it, even though we’ve lost a little performance compared to them.

“But there’s still work to do collectively, in all of us, including myself so we just keep working on that. Please don’t write that the wrong way, pole-worthy, I was meaning in terms of putting the perfect lap together, I feel like each time I’m getting as close to that as possible and then you finish the lap and it’s quite a long way off pole but it feels like quite an achievement to get in between the two Ferraris who have a bit of a delta to us at the moment.”

Advert | Become a RaceFans supporter and go ad-free

2019 F1 season