Lewis Hamilton was lost for words after breaking Michael Schumacher’s all-time pole position record in a rain-affected qualifying at Monza.
After long delays due to heavy rain in Monza, the Briton took to the track with full confidence amid great pressure from the Red Bulls who despite their penalties looked to challenge him for that coveted pole position.
“It’s very hard to find the words to explain how I feel,” Hamilton said. “I’m trying to figure it all out. It probably won’t sink in for a long time. It was an epic day, I feel truly blessed.
“The Red Bulls really made me work hard for the pole today, which I’m grateful for. The weather has obviously been incredibly tricky for us all. What a day to come here in this beautiful country with the English weather and to be massively challenged.”
In the dying stages of Q3, a fresh band of rain moved in and forced everyone back onto the wet tyres having tried the intermediates in Q2, the former triple-world champion claimed to have taken risks and gave it all under the mounting pressure.
“The second to last lap was okay at the beginning, but then I backed out of it, hoping that I’d get one more lap,” he added.
“There was a lot of pressure for that last lap – there could have been a red flag, there could have been a yellow flag. There was a lot of risk, but I gave it everything.”
Team boss Toto Wolff also added his congratulations on the record breaking pole position: “These tricky conditions are the times when you can do many more things wrong than right, so we can be pleased with our result.
“After such a long time waiting in the rain, I think the racing fans got their money’s worth from the dominant lap Lewis produced right at the end – even if they were probably cheering a bit more for the cars in red than for us.
“It was a brilliant lap, after a session where he was the quickest man throughout, and it was undoubtedly a performance worthy of claiming the all-time pole position record.”
