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Lewis Hamilton feels well prepared for the lights from British GP pole

"I’m hoping that the one that is best will be the race one," says Hamilton after practicing starts at Silverstone; Polesitter confirms he didn't flat-spot starting tyres in Q2, but Rosberg hopes one-lap fresher set gives him advantage; Race live on Sky F1 at 1pm

Lewis Hamilton at the SkyPad after his third British GP pole
Image: Lewis Hamilton at the SkyPad after his third British GP pole

Lewis Hamilton is optimistic he will make a better getaway from pole position in the British GP after dropping behind Nico Rosberg to race-losing effect in Austria.

The world champion revealed on his arrival at Silverstone on Thursday that he would revert to last year’s clutch and settings in his W06 after a run of poor starts in recent races, which culminated in his Mercedes team-mate beating him to the first corner at the last event.

Hamilton also said that the team found a problem with their start settings at the Austria test which has since been rectified.

During Friday practice in particular, Hamilton completed a number of dummy starts at the end of Silverstone’s pitlane. And while he admits there are never any guarantees that the one at the start of the race will be the best of the weekend, he feels he has prepared well as he aims for a third British GP win of his career.

“We’ve done a lot of starts, coming through the pit lane and doing starts. They’ve generally been really consistent so I feel very, very happy with them as of right now,” he said after claiming his eighth pole of the season on Saturday.

“Coming to [the race] you only do a couple of starts and they feel good, but you never know and one might not feel as good. But I’m hoping that the one that is best will be the race one.”

Although Hamilton maintained his qualifying domination over Rosberg so far this season on Saturday, the 30-year-old had trailed his team-mate by an unusually big margin the previous day as the German topped both the P1 and P2 sessions.

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Lewis Hamilton guides you around the Silverstone track after claiming pole position for the British GP.

Hamilton admitted his initial set-up for Silverstone had been far from ideal but changes to suspension, wing levels and mechanical balance, in addition to general car settings, on Friday night made a “night and day” difference – although he concedes further tweaks aimed at fine-tuning ahead of qualifying then actually made his W06 slightly worse again.

“I was really lost with the balance of the car. It was oversteering a lot in the high-speed corners and we made changes to improve it which should normally improve it, but it actually made it worse. So afterwards I was like [to his engineer] ‘I couldn’t tell you what I’d change to make the car right’ – which is very rare,” Hamilton explained.

“Then they did some analysis and found some problems with a few different settings that were on the car. So they rectified those overnight and then [in qualifying] the car was night and day different.

“I didn’t really need to change it [again] but we always want to be better and so we made some changes and it was slightly worse going into qualifying. But hopefully the race will be better.”

Lewis Hamilton celebrates his pole position at Silverstone
Image: Lewis Hamilton waves to the Silverstone crowd after clinching pole

One concern for Hamilton during qualifying came during Q2 when he slightly locked up his medium tyres on his opening fast lap in the second session. Under F1’s regulations, drivers who qualify in the top 10 have to start on the tyres they set their best Q2 lap on – and having done only one run in that session, Hamilton is therefore obliged to start on those same tyres.

However, the Briton has allayed fears that his mistake damaged the slick rubber.

“Fortunately there’s no flat-spot,” he confirmed. “There was a small lock-up but it [the wheel] was slowing releasing as I went into the corner, so it wasn’t actually a flat-spot. So no problems.”

But while he may not have flat-spotted the tyre, the error meant he had to complete a second timed lap on the rubber, whereas Rosberg ensured his progression to Q3 with just one flyer.

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Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton takes Johnny Herbert for spin ahead of the British GP.

In addition to a possible grip advantage at the start, Rosberg was also informed after qualifying of the startling fact that only three of the last 17 Silverstone polesitters have gone on to win the race.

“That’s incredible – and that’s why I was quite happy to not be on pole! I know the statistics and know the chances are much bigger to win the race from second…” he joked.

“But no, this weekend was one of the biggest differences in terms of long-run pace as we were practising on Friday. Lewis was struggling quite a lot there, so that’s another hope that I have, although his set-up has changed quite a lot since so maybe that’s different now, I don’t know.

“And also Lewis has two laps on the set [of tyres] he’s starting the race with, which could help at the start and the beginning of the race.”

Rosberg last year and Hamilton in 2013 both failed to win the race from the head of the grid, while the Briton’s only other home pole in his debut year of 2007 gave way to a third-place race finish. Sebastian Vettel in 2009 was the last driver to win in Britain from pole.

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