Lewis Hamilton believes the weather will make the race a lottery

Lewis Hamilton believes the inclement weather forecast for tomorrow’s Brazilian Grand Prix will make the race a lottery, with the expected treacherous track conditions set to level the playing field. This was the case during the last race that was heavily affected by rain in Malaysia, where Sergio Perez almost clinched victory for Sauber.

Despite a front-row lock-out by McLaren, Lewis Hamilton strongly believes the weather could have a big say in who eventually takes the checkered flag for victory. Although the forecast rain could make the race much more difficult for McLaren to win, Lewis Hamilton is not bothered by the rain which is expected on race day. The Briton has taken numerous victories in the wet, most notably at the 2007 Japanese and 2008 British Grands Prix.

“Well, I think the weather is going to be tricky tomorrow so it’s definitely going to make it more of a lottery.” Explained Lewis Hamilton, after securing McLaren’s 155th pole position. “But I think, as Jenson [Button] said, we’ve put ourselves in a really good position and we are just going to do the best job we can from there and work together as a team, the best we have been for quite some time, so we will make sure we will do absolutely everything to get the top result.”

Many teams up and down the grid, such as Mercedes, have opted for a wet set-up for the race, hence their slightly uncompetitive qualifying performance. McLaren on the other hand set their car up to attack during qualifying, instead of focusing too much on the weather forecast for the race. However, Lewis Hamilton explained that a wet set-up is no longer vastly different to a dry set-up, and that he does not mind if it rains during the race.

“Generally nowadays you don’t even really have much of a wet set-up.” Continued Lewis Hamilton, “It’s not like in karting when you soften everything off. The set-up in the dry and the wet is very, very similar – apart from ride heights maybe. We’ve just set the car to attack the qualifying and we don’t know what’s going to happen tomorrow. We [will] just have to wait and see, make sure we get our tyre pressures right, make sure we get the tyre temperatures right and the brake temperatures and try to steer clear of any big puddles. I don’t mind. I love driving in the rain.”

Lewis Hamilton’s confidence in the rain could prove to be a race winning factor come race day, however the nature of the Interlagos circuit could see the race run in dry conditions. With the weather at Interlagos almost as unpredictable as Spa-Francorchamps, tomorrows’s 71-lap Brazilian Grand Prix could see the drivers use all three types of tyre [dry, intermediate and full wet] as they battle the elements around the Interlagos circuit.

Follow me on Twitter - @AndyYoungF1