• Spanish Grand Prix - Qualifying

Hamilton aiming to beat Red Bulls into turn one

Lewis Hamilton: "My aim is to be P1 by turn one" © Sutton Images

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• Report:
• Webber grabs pole for dominant Red Bull
  

• Race:
• Spanish Grand Prix

• Championship:
• FIA Formula One World Championship

• Drivers:
• Lewis Hamilton

• Teams:
• McLaren

Lewis Hamilton is hoping to beat both Red Bulls into the first corner at the start of the Spanish Grand Prix after qualifying third on the grid for Sunday's race.

Hamilton was nearly a second off the pace of Mark Webber's pole time on Saturday, but will start from the clean side of the grid and may well have a KERS advantage over Sebastian Vettel in second. The Circuit de Catalunya has one of the longest stretches from the start line to the first corner and Hamilton is hoping he can muscle his way into the lead.

"The Red Bulls look very strong, but I'm going to do everything I can to jump at least one - if not both - of them at the start," he said. "I hope I can attack tomorrow. When you start from the clean side of the grid, you automatically have a much better opportunity of getting a good start - and, this year, I've usually been on the dirty side, so tomorrow will be a bit of a bonus for me.

"Third on the grid is actually a perfect position - because, if you get a good start, you can slipstream the guys in front. My aim is to be P1 by turn one! It doesn't normally go that way, but as long as I don't go backwards I'll be happy.

Hamilton locked up his front-left tyre under braking for turn 10 on his hot lap during qualifying, causing a nasty-looking flat spot. He made a similar mistake in Malaysia and it cost him dear when he could not use that set of tyres in the race. However, he is confident he will not be affected by the tyre in Sunday's race.

"When you're trying to eke every last drop out of the car, you sometimes lock the front wheels - and that's just what happened on my final lap," he said. "While the flat-spot to the front-left doesn't look perfect, we'll manage it by re-balancing the wheels, so it'll be fine. We've definitely made an improvement this weekend. We'll keep pushing: we don't give up, and with the DRS we should see some good racing tomorrow."

Team principal Martin Whitmarsh revealed that both Hamilton and team-mate Jenson Button did not have their KERS at peak performance during qualifying, but doubted it made much difference to the gap to Red Bull.

"They may have been a little quicker had they gone out when it was less breezy, and had we been able to get our KERS Hybrid up to optimal operating temperature; but I don't think we'd have been quite as quick as the Red Bulls," he said. "To be clear, our KERS Hybrid is an excellent system, thanks in large part to the superlative work done by Mercedes-Benz HighPerformanceEngines, but we struggled to get it up to optimal operating temperature today.

"Even so, we're usually a little closer to the Red Bulls' pace in race trim than we are in qualifying, and we've got two brilliant racers in Lewis and Jenson, and as I say they'll start from the clean side of the track; so, all in all, let's just say that we're looking forward to an exciting race tomorrow."

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