MELBOURNE, Australia -- Fresh from claiming pole position for Sunday's Australian Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton has hailed his Mercedes as "the best I have experienced".
Hamilton scored his fourth consecutive pole in Melbourne finishing 0.268s ahead of Ferrari's Sebastian Vettel and another half tenth in front of new teammate Valtteri Bottas. The three-time world champion is convinced the work Mercedes has put in during the off-season is beginning to pay enormous dividends.
"It is incredible, the best I have ever experienced here," said Hamilton. "The grip is fantastic, you can really push into these corners. I have not had the car skating around on low grip tyres like we have had in the past.
"I am incredibly proud of my team. This rule change has been huge and such a massive challenge for everyone and the guys have just worked so hard to make this card what it is today."
While confident and pleased with Mercedes' performance, Hamilton believes tomorrow's race will be a closely fought battle with Ferrari and insists he has spent significant time attempting to perfect his race starts.
"As you can see it is close between us [and Ferrari] so I think it is going to be a tight race this year. I will make sure that I get a good night's sleep and come back tomorrow stronger than ever."
"We have done a lot of work [on our race starts] over winter, particular knowing that the rules have changed this year. We feel we have prepared as best we possibly can."
The Australian Grand Prix begins at 5pm local time on Sunday.