Lewis Hamilton says he had to "drive the nuts off” his Mercedes Formula 1 c🦩ar 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 Finn൲ this season until he pulled out a last-gasp effort 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 performance and secure the 97th pole position of his career.

“I can’t tell you how h❀ard that was today,” said Hamilton. “Yes, 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 jus💞t been digging and digging and digging anꦫd trying to find that extra time.

“At the end ꦓthere, I chose to do three laps to give me chance at having a stab at beating [Valtteri’s] time.

“I think h𓆉♏e decided 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 Hamilton 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 Schu☂macher’s benchmark of 91 last time out at the Nurburgring, is braced for a close fight with Bottas and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who once again kept the Mercedes du💞o honest in qualifying.

“In qualifying they’ve had a good upgrade at the last race or the one bef🦋ore that and t🦂hey’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 🥂r🐎aces go and then when we get to the race they’re a lot closer.

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