- Japanese GP - Qualifying
Hamilton: FP3 shunt changed nothing
Lewis Hamilton refused to blame his FP3 shunt for losing pole to Nico Rosberg after admitting he "just wasn't feeling it" on a day his team-mate was two tenths faster in Suzuka.
Hamilton went off at Turn 1 during the morning practice session, giving his team a tricky job to fix the damaged front-left tyre. With the race likely to start behind the Safety Car with Typhoon Phanfone on route to the circuit the qualifying result could carry more significance than usual, though Hamilton was happy to admit his team-mate just did a better job.
When asked if it was tricky getting back in the car after his morning crash, Hamilton said: "No, that's the way it is. That's what we're trained to do. Nico was extremely quick today and I did the best I could. My guys did a great job to rebuild the car after I binned in, so a big thanks to their hard work.
"Today I just wasn't really feeling it, I don't know why. We were still fast but Nico was fantastically fast today. Tomorrow's the day you get points though so I'm looking forward to all the tricky weather that perhaps will come."
Hamilton had been complaining about a vibration in his car which may have been down to the quick repair job Mercedes carried out before qualifying, though he does not think it was the difference between pole and second.
"I generally had throughout the whole run - I don't know if that was to do with incident, the tyre imbalance maybe, but it didn't change the result."
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