Lewis Hamilton focuses on silver linings, insists pole was possible at Azerbaijan GP qualifying

Despite qualifying P12, Hamilton struck an upbeat tone, saying the car had genuine pole pace

After a chaotic qualifying for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton will start his Baku race from a disappointing P12. But despite this, he is surprisingly confident as he sees a silver lining around the dark cloud hanging over the windy city.

“I honestly thought I was going to be fighting for the top three today,” Hamilton said. “I thought I might be able to get pole today, that’s how much – I’ve not felt that all year.”

Angling the blame away from his own driving, he instead pointed to the team's execution.

"It's definitely tough to be in 12th, but as I said, I don't think that's from my driving, it's just execution needed to be better."

Despite starting in the dangerous middle of the pack, the Ferrari driver is keen to utilise the final straight to push up the grid.

"It's a great race this one. So, I'm really hoping my pace was decent on P2, race pace, we were quickest. So, I'm really hoping tomorrow that we've got decent pace, good straightline speed, we should hopefully be able to fight cars.

"You know, so much can happen here with safety cars and all sorts of strategy can really come into play. So, I'm just going to come into it as optimistic as possible, and I'm still going to try and get into the top three. That's been my goal all week."

Lewis Hamilton, Ferrari

Photo by: Joe Portlock / LAT Images via Getty Images

After a challenging season with the Scuderia - one that has failed to deliver Hamilton a podium finish - this is a drastic change in mindset from a driver who has been, more often than not, disappointed with his weekends.

"Yes, but P2 was my best P2 of the whole year, so I was really feeling positive. I know exactly all the places that have gone wrong in the background, so that's a positive. So, we know exactly where those are, and I know now what to do moving forward to make sure that doesn't happen.

"Implementing those in the heat of the moment in qualifying is not so easy, but there's lots we can take internally to improve, and I'm sure we will."

Tomorrow, team-mate Charles Leclerc starts 10th after a red flag-record-breaking qualifying put Red Bull's Max Verstappen on pole and Williams' Carlos Sainz beside him on the front row.