It was the only major Achilles heel in Lewis Hamilton’s repertoire in last season’s title-winning campaign.
So often majestic on a Sunday, Hamilton was often fallible on a Saturday in qualifying.
Spins, locking up brakes, hopelessly misjudging conditions – you name it, the Briton managed to do it on a Saturday in 2014, as well as suffering bad luck with mechanical problems, leading him to end up with only six pole positions from last year’s 19 races.
Not a bad effort, but in comfortably the best car in the field, and compared to Mercedes-GP teammate Nico Rosberg’s 12 pole positions, it was not a great return for someone who prides himself on being one of the quickest drivers in the sport on raw speed.
It did not prove a disastrous statistic, given Hamilton’s superior race craft led to 11 wins, but his qualifying problems did make life much harder for him then it needed to be.
The double world champion had said he would work on his approach to Saturdays at a grand prix during the winter, and whatever he did paid off immediately as he dominated yesterday’s Australian Grand Prix qualifying session to take pole with a lap of 1 minute, 26.327 seconds.
He was 0.6 seconds ahead of Rosberg, and ominously for Formula One fans hoping for a more competitive season after last year’s Mercedes dominance, the fastest non-Mercedes car, Felipe Massa’s Williams in third, was 1.4 seconds off the pace. “I’m really happy with what I did, particularly coming off a season like last year with the performance we had,” Hamilton said.
“Then there was the expectation coming into this season we should again have a car to compete, with the pressure upped again, and also with me being a champion, you become a target.
“I’m going to try and see if I can hit those heights every weekend from now on, if that’s possible.”
It was the fourth time Hamilton had taken pole at Albert Park, and he acknowledged he was surprised that Mercedes had not only maintained their speed advantage over the rest of the field, but had extended it.
“It’s hard to believe,” he said. “Last year it was the best car I’d ever driven, and I commented on that many times.
“It’s easy to then get it wrong by making drastic changes and getting too far ahead of ourselves, but we didn’t. To make the steps forward we have, the team have done an amazing job and it now is the best car I’ve driven.”
As to whether anyone can challenge Mercedes, he said: “We definitely didn’t expect the gap to be as big as it was – at least I didn’t. Ultimately, tomorrow it’s going to be a battle between me and Nico.”
Rosberg, who won last year’s race in Melbourne, was still optimistic he could stage a repeat success in today’s 58-lap race.
“The speed was there, I just didn’t get it together today,” he said. “I’m not worried about pace at all, to be honest.
“In the long runs, my pace was very strong, so hopefully it can be the other way around tomorrow.”
Hamilton was in such a relaxed mood he even had time for some banter with Mercedes head of motorsport Toto Wolff.
At each grand prix Wolff, Hamilton and Rosberg each conduct their own post-qualifying media session, so with the former taking questions the Briton at one stage appeared and raised his hand.
Pretending to be a reporter from a national newspaper, Hamilton asked: “Is there any news on the contract?”, bearing in mind discussions are continuing with Wolff as to a new deal.
The knockabout fun continued when it was Hamilton’s turn to face the press, with Wolff asking: “I have a question - how’s it going with your contract?”
With a smile, Hamilton replied: “It’s quite good. I think, after today, I feel like I’m going to start putting a bit of pressure on!”
* With agency
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