Chinese GP: Lewis Hamilton sure he could've improved on pole lap

Lewis Hamilton reckons he could have gone even faster in Chinese Grand Prix qualifying, despite taking the 34th pole position of his Formula 1 career by a massive margin

The 2008 F1 world champion beat Daniel Ricciardo's Red Bull by nearly six tenths of a second in the final part of a wet qualifying session at Shanghai on Saturday, and outqualified Mercedes team-mate Nico Rosberg by over 1.2s.

Although the gap to Rosberg was accentuated by a mistake by the German on his first run - and a spin caused by a faulty steering wheel display on Rosberg's final lap - Hamilton revealed that his own best lap could have been even better.

"We've got the same car so there's no difference between the cars really," Hamilton said.

"I think there are maybe small, small set-up changes but we're very similar there.

"You have to ask Nico what happened with him, but obviously he had that spin.

"If he put his sectors together I think he was three or four tenths behind - not as big a gap - but on the lap I got pole I lost quite a lot of time, so there's more there."

Hamilton also said it was "unbelievable" to eclipse Jim Clark's record for the most poles scored by a British driver.

F1's all-time pole stats on FORIX

"I don't pay too much attention to records but I feel blessed that I've had the chance to work with great people and have these good cars to be able to put these laps in - even more so with this team," said Hamilton, who is now fourth in F1's all-time pole list having topped qualifying 34 times.

"To be up there amongst the great names of all the Brits; I'm very very proud of that.

"To beat Jim Clark's record is unbelievable really. I'm very grateful."