Lewis Hamilton explained the changes for Mercedes between practice and qualifying for the Formula 1 Singapore Grand Prix were “night and day.”

The Mercedes man was way off the pace of the front-runners on Friday afternoon and Saturday morning but managed to get into Q3 during qualifying and then caused a shock by taking third, with team-mate George Russell in fourth spot.

When asked after qualifying whether the result was a surprise, Hamilton was reluctant to use that word but admitted the result was not what he was expecting after struggling to find the right balance.

“I’m not saying it’s a surprise, but it’s…This morning, and all of yesterday, we were 1.2 seconds off these guys,” he said.

“So we arrived with a car that was massively understeery, and we just couldn’t dial any in, no matter what we did.

“And we made changes overnight, came here today, pretty much the same thing.

“I was really definitely shocked to see that we were still 1.2 seconds behind Lando again, and then we just kept our heads down, kept not giving up, and we made some more changes and got into this session, and it was like night and day – such a big difference.

“Car was all of a sudden alive and would go where I want to go. So it was looking really strong throughout qualifying, and I think, obviously, with the crash in Q3 [involving Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz], it made it difficult for all of us to put that final lap together.

Lewis Hamilton: Q3 lap ‘nothing special’

Hamilton also conceded that he did not believe that, despite Sainz’s crash bringing a halt to proceedings, his lap could have been better.

“I think my lap was also nothing special,” he said.

“Very difficult to get the tyres perfect. I had a lot of snaps, so I think with a better job, maybe we could have been front row, but I don’t know whether or not we could have beaten them today.

“But still really, really happy.”

Hamilton addressed the issue that qualifying has, at times this season, been a weak point in his driving, and said he was happy to be amongst the front of the grid, where he has often been used to being.

“Yeah, I mean, just to be up here with these guys, great drivers.

“I’ve not been up here for a while, and qualifying has been a nightmare for quite a long time. So it feels great to be up here.

“I feel very, very grateful and very, very happy and I think hopefully from here, George and I are on the second row, so hopefully from here, we can apply pressure to these two.

“To be even ahead of another McLaren, another Red Bull and also the Ferraris is mega considering how fast the Ferraris particularly are here.

“I hope that we can hold on to these guys tomorrow.”