Hamilton fears tough ask to reel in Verstappen despite qualifying heroics

Lewis Hamilton set the fastest time in F1 qualifying for the São Paulo Grand Prix but fears a "difficult" Sunday with an engine penalty set to drop him five places.

With a fresh engine, Hamilton was in a class of his own across the session, finishing almost half-a-second clear of Red Bull's Max Verstappen who joins him on the front row.

Should Hamilton win the sprint and Verstappen finish runner-up, the Dutchman will start from pole for Sunday's grand prix, with the Briton demoted to sixth.

Staring at a 19-point deficit coming into this weekend, that gap is poised to increase further going into the final three races.

Looking ahead to the rest of the weekend, Hamilton said: "It's not easy to follow but I guess Max is obviously starting from pole now so it's going to be very hard to catch him but I'll do my best to try and get through the field.

"I don't know what tomorrow will hold. I think the weather will be perhaps better which makes it a bit more difficult for everyone but I feel really grateful.

"It's crazy because it has been a while [Hamilton last set the fastest time in qualifying in Hungary] so it just feels like the first."

All the F1 teams faced major delays to their preparations on Thursday due to delays with the freight leaving Mexico.

Paying tribute to his team for the effort they put in to get both cars ready, Hamilton added: "Just a big thank you to the team because they've been working flat out.

"It's been so hard coming from the last race for everyone at the race, going from one race to the other, taking the car apart and rebuilding it.

"Just the man-hours is insane but today was a really good qualifying session. I'm super happy with it. We've got the penalty but we give it everything we've got."

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