Lewis Hamilton admitted surprise at beating Red Bull to pole position at the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.

After finishing four-tenths behind Max Verstappen in qualifying in Bahrain, Imola has proven to be better suited to the Mercedes car, while both Max and teammate Sergio Perez also lost track time on Friday.

But after the Dutchman showed strong pace during final practice on Saturday, the seven-time world champion still anticipated the RB16B would have a single-lap pace advantage over the W12

“I definitely didn’t expect us to be ahead of the two Red Bulls!” Hamilton was quoted by Formula1.com.

“They’ve been so quick this weekend. There were times when they were six-tenths ahead and we didn’t really know where we’d be but the car was already feeling a lot better from the beginning this weekend."

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The two top teams traded fastest times throughout the qualifying hour at Imola, but it was Hamilton's 1m14.411s on his first run in Q3 which ultimately proved just enough to secure his 99th Formula 1 pole.

“I knew going into qualifying and especially that last lap, it was going to take something special,” he added.

“It really had to be the most perfect lap and a little bit more to beat the Red Bulls because they really have been so fast and I didn’t honestly know whether we could do it.

“The first lap in Q3, I started a tenth up in [Turns] 2 and 3 and I knew I was onto a good lap, but the second sector I lost a little in Turn 12. So the second time around, unfortunately, I came out of Turn 1… a tenth down, and by the time I got to Turn 9 I was a tenth and a half down, but managed to regain that through the middle and the last sector.

"So having those two together, would have been the perfect, perfect lap.”

Just 0.087s covered the top three at the end of Q3, with Hamilton beating Perez by only 0.035s, and the 36-year-old admits the Mexican's presence at the front of the grid, while exciting, will make his job much harder on Sunday.

“I think it’s great finally we’ve got the two Red Bulls there,” he said. “It’s going to definitely make the strategy harder and it’s going to be a real challenge tomorrow because they’ve got great pace, I think their race pace was a little bit stronger than us on the long runs yesterday.

“I can’t remember the last time I saw the two Red Bulls so close and so I think tomorrow of course if we’re able to get off in order then they obviously have a bit of a better set of cards in terms of strategy – but that doesn’t mean we can’t pull out something unique and do something different."

In fact, Hamilton now faces Verstappen's same situation in Bahrain of two versus one, after teammate Valtteri Bottas could only qualifying eighth.

“I’m not really sure what happened with Valtteri but it’s very hard to overtake here, so I obviously probably won’t have the support of him early on," Lewis conceded. "Nevertheless, maybe he’ll make it through, otherwise we’ve just got to focus on our job and try and give it absolutely everything and more to keep these guys behind.”