In the wet, in the dry, in broad daylight and, here unforgettably last night under 1500 light bulbs, Lewis Hamilton is turning magical deeds into the routine of his business life.
The world champion’s pole position for the Singapore Grand Prix was accomplished on the humid Marina Bay track that was meant so strongly to favour Ferrari that they would have wished to roll it up and carry it around the world with them.
But it was Hamilton’s white-gloved finger pointing into the sky dominantly after beating the theory, the red cars and the rest out of sight. He flicked a V-for-Victory sign and virtually hugged his Mercedes. ‘Wow, wow,’ he exclaimed. ‘That lap felt like magic.’
Lewis Hamilton’s fine form continued as he sealed pole position at the Singapore Grand Prix
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen (left) took second and the front row as Sebastian Vettel went third
A beguiled world scratched its head and stretched for superlatives. ‘It’s stardust,’ said the conjuror’s boss Toto Wolff. ‘I can’t explain what happened on that lap. He’s just an exceptional individual.’
Hamilton’s record time – 1min 36.015sec – was three-tenths faster than Max Verstappen, Red Bull’s Dutch colt who described his own lap as the best of his Formula One career, and a massive six-tenths faster than Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel in third. As for Hamilton’s team-mate Valtteri Bottas, he was nearly seven-tenths adrift in fourth and chiefly acting as a benchmark for greatness.
‘I don’t know where it came from but it all fitted together like a jigsaw,’ said Hamilton. ‘I’m super overwhelmed. My heart is racing. There wasn’t a moment in the lap that I went wide. It was just perfectly to the limit. It felt like one of the best laps I remember.’
Hamilton made his decisive mark on the timing screens with his penultimate lap, sending the pole target into orbit. ‘A pretty epic lap there, Lewis,’ purred race engineer Peter Bonnington with all the vocal excitement of an air steward pointing out that the fasten seat belts signs had been turned on.
That is just Bonnington’s no-turbulence-to-worry-about-here style of delivery. But every other pit wall crew was worried as hell. And none of their men could get close to Hamilton’s time on their final laps, including the man himself as he strove for even more fractions of a second. But by then his job was done. It was his seventh pole of the season and the 79th of his career.
Vettel was downcast afterwards, his usually ebullient answers more resigned than usual. ‘Not ideal for us,’ he said. ‘A messy session.’ The German, who was generous about the great job Hamilton had done, can afford few mistakes, lying 30 points behind his rival with seven races remaining.
The Brit qualified fastest in a blistering time of 1:36.015 at the Marina Bay Street Circuit
Before yesterday’s drubbing, he had the life crushed out of him when Hamilton triumphed in Monza a fortnight ago as he made the latest in a succession of costly mistakes.
Should Hamilton convert his pole into victory today, it would represent a massive step in his quest to pip Vettel to a fifth title. Can the Ferrari man hit back? He has won five times having not started on the front row – all from third place. Indeed, he did so in Singapore six years ago.
But any rational evaluation suggests that if Vettel were to triumph today, it would surely only because something unexpected had befallen Hamilton.
It was a qualifying session to forget for Vettel who was favourite for pole before it all started
There had been a nervous few minutes in Q1 when Mercedes gambled on using their slower ultrasoft tyres to save an extra set of the hypersofts for the race. But, fear not, Hamilton squeezed through in 14th place to illuminate the rest of the dramatic proceedings.
‘It is so difficult here – like Monaco on steroids, longer with more corners,’ added Hamilton. ‘It felt like an incredible pole.’
Verstappen produced one of his best qualifying sessions of the season and pushed Hamilton
It is his fourth Singapore pole and he knows it could be a Championship-winning performance