🐻Lewis Hamilton says he had to "dr꧑ive the nuts off” his Mercedes Formula 1 car to come from behind and grab a late pole position for the Portuguese Grand Prix.

Hamilton had trailed teammate Valtteri Bottas all weekend and looked like he would suffer a rare qualifying defeat to the Finn this season until he pulled out a last-gasp eff𝓡ort by completing an extra run on Medium tyres to snatch pole by 0.102s.

The Briton admitted he had to dig deep to pull out his late perfo🎃rmance and secure the 97th pole position of his career.

“I can’t tell you how hard that wa❀s today,” said Hamilton. “ಌYes, we’ve got a great car, but you have to drive the nuts off of it to pull out the lap.

“Valtteri’s been so quick this weekend, he’s topped every session, so I’ve just been di🐎ggi🌜ng and digging and digging and trying to find that extra time.

“At the end there, I chose to do three laps to give me chance at having a stab aꦿt beat🍷ing [Valtteri’s] time.

“I think ♔he decideꦆd to do one and I was like, this could give me an opportunity and it worked. That last lap, it got better and better as I went through it.”

And Hamil🏅ton is expecting another tough battle in the race as he aims to set a 🔴new record for most wins in F1.

The six-time world champion, who equalled Michael Schumacher’s benchmark of 91 last time out at the N💙urburgring, is braced for a close fight with Bottas and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who once again kept the Mercedes duo honest in qualifying.

“In qualifyi๊ng they’ve had a good upgrade at the last race or the one before that and they’ve bene getting closer and closer through the weekends,” Hamilton said of Red Bull’s recent gains.

“This is the closest we’ve been. We’ve not brought any upgrades to our car for a bit of time now, but hopefully that continues on this trend as these next races g🌜o and then when we get to the race they’re a lot closer.

“The last rꦡace I was having to seriously push to keep Max at a distance and not get into my DRS zone, so we 💮should have a good race with these six left.”