An emotional Lewis Hamilton has confessed his disbelief after equalling the pole tally of hero Ayrton Senna in qualifying for the Canadian Grand Prix.
Hamilton drew level with his idol in suitably impressive fashion, beating title rival Sebastian Vettel to pole position with an inspired display at the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve.
Still clutching the helmet he was gifted after qualifying, Hamilton told the press that he had achieved one of his boyhood dreams.
“As a kid I’d come home and I’d say if I’m really lucky and I get to Formula 1, I want to emulate Ayrton,” the Mercedes driver said. “The fact that I have now reached him in that area, I just can’t believe it. I honestly can’t believe it.
“I remember coming home from school and putting on the video tape, so it’s really strange to think that now I’m here and I have that many poles.
“Given that it is the most difficult season of my career, racing against these two great drivers, and Kimi, and having us so close – it really pushes all of us to the limit and it requires us to be perfect.
“Of course, we can’t always be perfect but today I got as close as I could get.”
Reflecting on his pole lap, Hamilton felt he was able to extract every ounce of performance from his W08.
“I was so happy with the laps. The car was difficult at the beginning of yesterday. I already felt like I was at the limit of the car so we sat down and studied to see if we could squeeze out any more juice from it, which we did.
“I sent out a message to my guys this morning, saying we need everything to be on point. We need every single millimeter that the car can give us today, and they did it. The banker was already great.
“Bit by bit through the next lap I could see the delta picking up and I was getting excited. I completely forgot it was for my 65th, it was about the here and now.”
Hamilton is looking to narrow Vettel’s 25-point championship lead, but victory in Sunday’s race is far from a morality, with Montreal boasting the lowest pole conversion rate on the calendar.
