Hamilton to be "aggressive" with Vettel

Lewis Hamilton has promised he will be just as "aggressive" as Sebastian Vettel in Sunday's Japanese Grand Prix.

The British driver secured a first-ever pole position at Suzuka after smashing Michael Schumacher's 11-year-old track record, finishing over one-third of a second ahead of team-mate Valtteri Bottas.

His title rival Vettel trailed home in third but will begin from second spot as Bottas has been hit with a five-place grid penalty. 

Hamilton and Vettel last began together on the front row at the Belgian GP in August and since then Vettel caused a crash with Max Verstappen after the three-car start-line crash in Singapore, and the Mercedes driver is ready for anything Vettel will throw at him.

"He won't be any more aggressive than I am," he told Sky Sports.

"I've got eight metres [advantage], I need to make sure I keep the eight metres that I have and [have a] good start. Starts have generally been strong this year so I'll just try to continue with that.

"It's been 10 years trying to get that pole position!

"Every single time I've struggled here with finding the right balance, often not starting on the front foot.

"This is the first time and definitely the first car which has felt underneath me all weekend with small tweaks in the right direction. It's worked out better this time and my knowledge of the car is better than it has been before. 

"It's a real confidence builder as a group, me, my engineer and mechanics. I hope I can capitalise on today's great work.

"Our car is generally very strong in qualifying trim and then generally when we get to a race we are maybe a step back, not as good. So trying to understand that and how we can improve that for next year's car is key.

"But, for positioning, it's hard if not impossible to overtake here so we have definitely put ourselves in the best position. I'm hoping that our car works well. It felt good on the soft tyre, perhaps less so on the supersoft."

The Japanese Grand Prix is live on eir sport 1 this Sunday, coverage beginning at 6am.

Image: Getty/Lars Baron

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