2008 F1 World Champion Lewis Hamilton is optimistic that he will still have a very good chance to challenge the Red Bulls for a win in tomorrow's European (Valencia) Grand Prix despite Sebastian Vettel and Mark Webber being on the front row after their blinding laps, and Valencia having a reputation as a track where passing is difficult.
The McLaren driver was 0.4 seconds off pole sitter Sebastian Vettel's time as he qualified third today, but hopes that he can move forward if the race is as eventful as many Grand prix have been this year. When asked if he could race with Red Bull, Hamilton said: "That is always the question, but we are as close as we could be. This is a track notorious for being difficult to overtake on.
"We will see what happens, there will be more pit stops here than we have had in the past. We have seen how other races unfolded [in 2011] so we could still have an exciting race."
Hamilton added that he was pleasantly surprised to get as high as third, having struggled to get this weekend's Pirelli tyres working for him so far this weekend.
"I wasn't expecting to be so high up," he said. "After practice three we were struggling a little bit to switch the tyres on.
"The guys did a great job to analyse the data into qualifying. My lap wasn't too bad, I tried to improve on last lap - always trying to get a bit more - but I got a bit greedy, and bailed out on last lap to try and save tyres for the race."
