Brit Lewis Hamilton with a Mercedes in a rainy qualifier.
Darko Bandic, ČTK / AP
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Thirty-five-year-old Hamilton showed today at the Spielberg circuit why he is considered one of the best riders on the wet track. The defending champion coped with the heavy rain and finished pole position with a big lead of 1.2 seconds over the second Max Verstappen from Red Bull.
“It’s not often that you experience something that isn’t from this world,” Reuters quoted Wolff as saying. “If you look at the statistics of his bike, you will find that he kept the car on the brink. He was sliding on the water and incredibly controlled the throttle,” added the head of Mercedes.
Hamilton reigned in the rainy qualification
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“If you have a perfect car with well-heated tires, good handling, a good engine and a pilot with skills and intelligence, I believe they can combine into one. And in such cases, you can see similar performance,” the official added.
Hamilton, who improved his own record to 89 winning qualifiers, also considered today’s qualifying round to be perfect. “We rode in probably the worst possible conditions. Honestly, the last lap was fantastic. It was probably impossible to get closer to perfection in those conditions,” he said.
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