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On a circuit that he absolutely adores, Lewis Hamilton managed to secure P3 in Saturday's sprint race at the 2022 F1 Brazilian GP, behind his teammate George Russell and Ferrari's Carlos Sainz. With the Spaniard set to take an engine penalty for the main race, Hamilton will be starting the race in P2, giving Mercedes their first front-row lockout of the season so far.
In a post-race media interaction, Lewis Hamilton admitted that he is looking forward to a good fight and a potential win at Interlagos. He said:
"I am so, so happy to be here, it has been an incredible week. Difficult day yesterday but what a crowd we have had today. Starting from 8th and making my way slowly but congratulations to George. This just goes back to everyone back at the factory, everyone working here on the ground who have been working so hard this year, this is an amazing result."
He added:
"To be on the front row tomorrow is incredible. From there, we should be able to work as a team and hopefully hold off the guys behind. We are going to try as hard as we can. If we can get some good degradation tomorrow and some good weather, we could have a good fight on our hands. A win here for Brazil would be incredible."
The seven-time world champion awaits a decision by the FIA, who are investigating a potential race start infringement by Hamilton and two others, but Mercedes engineer Andrew Shovlin seems optimistic that everything is within the limits of the regulation. Speaking to Sky Sports, he said:
"I wasn't talking to race control, and they have deferred that to after to look into it. That might be down to positioning in the box but we have got the onboard and it looks like we are very, very conservative in where he positioned it in terms of the lines. Whether it was a sensory issue I don't know but from the image we have seen, there doesn't look to be any hint that we were outside that box."
Max Verstappen looking forward to an "interesting" future with Lewis Hamilton's contract extension
While Lewis Hamilton's contract with Mercedes is set to expire at the end of the 2023 season, the Briton has expressed his desire to continue beyond next season.
Last year, Max Verstappen shared a massive rivalry with the Mercedes driver. The Dutchman is now looking forward to the prospect of competing with Hamilton in the years to come, should he choose to extend his contract and continue racing.
As reported by Express, the two-time world champion said:
"He has to do what he thinks feels right. As long as he wants to keep racing, he has to keep doing that. We've had great battles and I'm sure in the coming years all the teams will be a little closer together. So it will be interesting to see who will compete at the top."
Lewis Hamilton is yet to secure a race win in the 2022 season, so a front-row lockout for tomorrow's main event should raise his fans' hopes.
