“I don’t lie, I don’t have anything to hide” – Lewis Hamilton on ‘stealing’ Portuguese GP pole from Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas

“I don’t lie, I don’t have anything to hide” – Lewis Hamilton has his say on ‘stealing’ Portuguese GP pole from Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas.

Reigning champion Lewis Hamilton is in a league of his own at the moment. He claimed yet another pole yesterday at Portimao, the 97th of his career. If he manages to convert that into a win today, he will break Michael Schumacher’s record of 91 race victories in F1.

His teammate Valtteri Bottas, meanwhile, has fittingly earned the moniker of “Mr. Friday”. The Finn has finished P1 in seven consecutive FP1 sessions now. If that was not enough, he clean-sweeped practice heading into Saturday’s qualifying, only to be beaten right at the end by Hamilton. Bottas also clean-sweeped practice at Mugello, Ferrari’s home track which made its F1 debut this season. 

Hamilton, when asked if he ‘hid’ something in practice only to show his true colours in qualifying had a crisp reply. He also admitted trying that out in F3, but it never really worked in his favour.

“I don’t lie, I don’t have anything to hide, I don’t hold anything back.”

“I’ve never personally felt that that’s worked. I remember when I was younger and in lower categories some people tried doing that stuff. But I remember trying it when I was in Formula 3, or something like that, and it never ended well so that’s never been something that was part of my philosophy.”

Also read: Portimao F1 Circuit: All you need to know about the Portuguese race-track making its debut in Formula One

Lewis Hamilton explains his approach on a race weekend

Lewis also spoke about what it takes to have a successful F1 Grand Prix weekend. He expressed happiness at how this weekend has gone, especially with Bottas topping the charts in practice. Like in most races in which the Brit has topped in qualifying, he is expected to win today. With the championship virtually done and dusted, the battle to watch out for is between Bottas and Max Verstappen.

“It’s like building a wall – you put one brick, the next, the next and you just continue to improve throughout.

“I generally think I’ve been driving really well all weekend. I’ve been really happy with my performances through practice but he (Bottas) has always been at the top.

Read more: “It is annoying”- Valtteri Bottas on Lewis Hamilton for snatching pole position from him

“So I really had to just continue to dig and to believe that I could eventually get there. Coming across the line and getting the pole, it was a great feeling, naturally, because I really had to work my socks off for it.”