A bullish Lewis Hamilton has dismissed concerns that a poor start could cost him victory at the Malaysia Grand Prix after securing a dominant pole position in qualifying.
The Briton has been in inspired form throughout the weekend in Sepang as he looks to strike back in the title fight, taking pole position by a dazzling four-tenths of a second ahead of team-mate Nico Rosberg.
Hamilton, though, has managed to convert only three of his seven previous pole positions to victory this year, either as a result of sluggish starts or first-lap incidents.
The 31-year old is targeting a first victory since the German Grand Prix back in July and sees no reason why the top step will elude him on Sunday.
“Honestly I don’t think anything is going to stop us,” he said.
“We have great, great pace and in the last race, we had a pretty good start. It’s something we are constantly working on, so that’s not something l am letting in my mind.”
Rosberg, though, remains “very optimistic” ahead of the 56-lap race, though he did lament an error at the final corner which he says explains the substantial deficit.
“Lewis’ lap was very quick so it was always going to be difficult,” he conceded. “I would have come close but unfortunately I had a mistake in the last corner.
“Something just wasn’t going right there in the last corner, I just couldn’t get the settings right, there was always going to be an oversteer moment into there.
“But anyway, second place, we’ll live with that now. As we know from this year, second place does not mean that victory is not possible tomorrow. We’ve seen that so many times. Still very optimistic for tomorrow.”
Eight points separate the two Silver Arrows at the head of the championship with six races remaining.
