Hamilton’s pole position for Singapore in 2018 was a decisive blow in the title race against 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Sebastian Vettel.

Ahead of F1’s visit to the Marina Bay Street Circuit,ဣ many ex🍰pected Ferrari and Red Bull to hold the advantage over Mercedes.

During𝐆 the hybrid era,♍ Mercedes typically struggled in Singapore - and many expected the same in 2018.

It wasn’t the case as Hamilton’s first attempt in Q3 of a 1m36.015s stormed to the top of the timesheets, three-tenths ahead of 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Max Verstappen.

The lap wasn’t beaten as Hamilton claime⛦d pole before securing the win on Sunday to move closer to his fifth wor♑ld title.

"That l꧋ap felt like 🐽magic," Hamilton said. "I don't know where it came from.

“The pressure was at its highest for that Q3 run and l just hit every po🤪int perfectly. That was the one lap wh🐻ere it all flowed beautifully. It felt incredible.”

T🌱oto Wolff was in awe of Hamilton’s lap, stating after qualifying: “I think from Lewis’ side, for me the stardust, [it was] the most epic lap I have ever seen from him.”

There’s no doubt that Hamilton’s lap was sensational - up there as one of the best🃏 in his F1 career - but there’s a valid argument to say it’s overrated.

The ‘shock’ fac𒀰tor of Hamilton taking pole on a track where Mercedes expected to struggle potentially exaggerates how good a lap it actually was.

Mercedes did secure a front row-lo🃏ck out in Hungary earlier in the season - a high downforce track with similar characteristics. 

Plus, Hamilton’s margin over teammate 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Valtteri Bottas was also substantial in 2017 and 2019.

In 2017 it wa♕s 0.624s, 0.687s in 2018, and 0.ꦺ738 in 2019.

The gap remained fairly stable acrℱoss all three visits to Singapore - so perhaps Mercedes just had the best car in 2018?

Eಌven looking at Singapore 2018, Ver🌠stappen was only three-tenths off pole despite an engine cutout. 

"On my final run, I tr🐼ied to push a bit more and I was anoth꧑er two tenths up,” Verstappen explained.

“Then I arrived to [Turn] 16/17 and when I had to short shift again the engine just cut out, so I had to𒈔 abort.”

More impressively, without the issue, Verstappen - in weaker machinery - would🔴 have been a very close match for pole.

Perhaps Verstappen's lap was the best from Singapore 2018ﷺ? 

Generally-speaking, Singapore has often produced some memorable pole laps ♛o🌸ver the years.

A number of Vettel’s deserve more credit - and are debatably better than Hamilton’s♛.

His 2013 lap was so good he remained in the pit lane for the end of qualifying gi🉐ven his 0𒈔.6s margin over Nico Rosberg.

Similarly in 2015, he♊ stormed to Ferrari’s first pole of the year b🐼y over 0.6s.

Perhaps the most underrated Singapore pole lap ever was 168澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果历史:Nico Rosberg’s from 2016, nearly 0.6s clear of Daniel Ricciardo, with Hamilton only managing thꦰird.

There’s no doubt that Hamilton’s 2018 Singapore pole lap was spectacular - it was a shock and very decisive in that year’s title race𒆙 - but claiming it’s the ‘best qualifying lap ever’ puts it in the overrated category.

Something 🍰can still be overrated and amazing - just to be clear.

Even looking at Hamilton’s mass collection 𝓀of pole laps - 2018 Australia, 2020 Styria and 2023 Hungary are all probab🔥ly ahead as his best ever.