After been outpaced by Valtteri Bottas in FP1, FP2, FP3, Q2 and on their first runs in Q3, Lewis Hamilton pulled it out of the bag at the end of qualifying to take the 97th pole of his career. 

Hamilton explained his decision to do two-timed laps on his final run in Q3, with it paying off as the six-time World Champion narrowly beat his stablemate to pole; he also talked about how he had to chip away at it to beat Bottas as the Finn was faster throughout Friday and most of Saturday.  

“Valtteri has been so quick this weekend,” said the world champion. “He's topped every session and I've just been digging and digging and digging and trying to find that extra time. 

“At the end there, I chose to do three laps [a flying lap, a cool-down lap and a second flying lap] to give me a chance to have a stab at beating his time. And I think he decided to do one. So I was like, ‘okay this could provide me an opportunity and it worked.’ That last lap got better and better as I went through.” 

“We had the choice of going on to the soft or to the medium. We both chose to go to the medium. He chose to do one lap, I chose to do three, because we had the time. 

“So I got out there nice and early. And, you know, the medium tyres...the tyres are very hard here this weekend. We've got the hardest of the compounds and getting them to work here is, believe it or not, it's very, very difficult. So that's why I wanted to have an extra run just in case the first one wasn't that great. And it worked perfectly.” 

97th pole 🙌🏾 This track is tricky!😅 Really blown away with all the support here this weekend. So nice to see the fans back in the stands. #TeamLH https://t.co/cWHibfneEO

— Lewis Hamilton (@LewisHamilton) October 24, 2020

Bottas explained that Mercedes went with the medium in Q3 as they felt it was a slightly faster tyre than the soft. He also went into detail about why he went for one timed lap in the final segment of qualifying, a decision he came to regret. 

“The medium actually felt a tiny bit quicker than the soft, and then it was choosing if we do two timed laps, with a cool down in between, or just one timed lap,” said the Finn. 

“Obviously, with one timed lap you can have less fuel in the car, but you might struggle with the tyre warm-up. I went for that. It was my decision to go for one timed lap, because it worked in Q2, but apparently it seems like doing two timed laps for Lewis was better. 

“It was a decent lap, not perfect. It's been tricky here to get really clean laps this weekend because of the way the track is, but I mean the lap was good. I think ultimately I should have gone for two timed laps as well.” 

2nd on the grid for tomorrow 🇵🇹🏁

Ready and hungry to fight for the win tomorrow! Read about the close quali: https://t.co/apv3B3uVwR#VB77 #F1 #PortugueseGP @MercedesAMGF1 @F1 pic.twitter.com/JJwbfUDkho

— Valtteri Bottas (@ValtteriBottas) October 24, 2020