Hamilton shares lovely anecdote: 'Proved otherwise by that qualifying lap'

Proving them wrong

It is well known that Hamilton does many things besides racing. He is into music, fashion, and regularly as an activist. Therefore, there is often criticism of his busy life outside of the track because it may be at the expense of his performance. That criticism evaporates as soon as the Brit proves him wrong, even Niki Lauda.

"I've got a great team around me, but I'd say I'm a lot busier than any driver has ever really been. Finding the right balance is probably the hardest thing, because you never want to arrive and people say the reason why you haven't performed is because you've been distracted by all this other stuff, which is an easy trigger for people to attack you with."

Pole lap in Singapore 2018

Hamilton then cites an example where he was criticised for attending a fashion show while they were right before the Singapore Grand Prix.

"For example the time when I did a fashion show in New York and then flew over and everyone, even Niki, said 'he can't do that.' Then I set that qualifying lap, which broke the mould and everyone said 'oh yes, you can do that'".

Hamilton took pole with a great lap, just ahead of Max Verstappen who also drove a masterful lap.

The world champion does state that racing is the most important thing in everything he does: "I wouldn't be able to do all these other things if I didn't do racing, so at the end of the day it's up to me to know the limits and how far I can go and that I shouldn't stay up late and go out and party or whatever."