• Monaco Grand Prix - Qualifying

Hamilton eyes win after 'massively tough' session

Lewis Hamilton was fourth quickest behind Michael Schumacher, Mark Webber and Nico Rosberg © Sutton Images

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• Report:
• Schumacher takes Monaco pole before penalty
  

• Race:
• Monaco Grand Prix

• Drivers:
• Lewis Hamilton

• Teams:
• McLaren

Lewis Hamilton is hoping to get a good start in order to challenge for victory after what he described as a "massively tough" qualifying session in Monaco.

Michael Schumacher was fastest in a qualifying session which saw the top three drivers covered by less than 0.15s. Hamilton was nearly 0.3s off pole in fourth place but will start third after Schumacher takes a grid penalty, and he said he'd been surprised by how tough the session had been for him.

"I've had a good feeling all weekend, but his afternoon was massively tough: one of my toughest qualifying sessions for some time, in fact," Hamilton said. "And there are two great drivers ahead of me who'll make it even tougher for me tomorrow. I'm fortunate to be one place higher owing to Michael's [Schumacher] penalty, but we struggled a little today, particularly with the very low-speed stuff. It was difficult to get the tyres to 'switch on' and give us the grip we needed.

"Still, qualifying was so much fun - I really enjoyed it - and the tyres and strategy can play a big part around here. If I get a good start, we'll suddenly be in fighting position for the win. Anything can happen at Monaco and I'll give everything tomorrow ... If it rains a little then I'll be grateful for it."

Hamilton explained that he's enjoying the challenge of having to find tiny bits of time to make the difference in such a close field.

"I'm just happy that I improved every time that I went out and I really got everything from the car that I possibly could. I had a nice little near-miss on my first run in Q3. Qualifying's so much fun, I've been enjoying it so much this year. You go out in Q1 and you don't push 100% here particularly, and then in Q2 a little bit more and then in Q3 then you're flat out, it's just everything you've got. Even if it means you're going to crash, you've just got to take every little risk you can to get that one millisecond, and that's what I love about it."

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