Lewis Hamilton says the rules for racing are not clear after the drivers’ briefing at the Qatar Grand Prix.

Max Verstappen was not investigated for his defensive move on Hamilton in Brazil, where the Red Bull driver retained his position after he failed to make Turn 4 and both cars ended up off the road. Mercedes failed in an attempt to get the decision reviewed this week, and after Friday’s driver briefing was more than an hour long, Hamilton says only Verstappen appears confident he knows what is allowed.

“No, it’s not clear,” Hamilton said after taking pole in Qatar. “Every driver I think except for Max was asking for clarity… most drivers were asking for clarity but it wasn’t very clear. It’s still not clear what the limits of the track are. It’s clearly not the white line anymore when overtaking. We will just go for it… we just ask for consistency so if it’s the same for the last race then that should be the same for all of us in those certain scenarios and then it’s fine.

“It could be different with different stewards is what they said. We have the same ones as last week so this week it’s one way and we will see.”

Asked if he will change his approach, Hamilton added: “Yeah I guess so. Potentially. I can’t really say. I would assume so, yeah.”

Hamilton was speaking after taking pole position by more than 0.4s in Qatar, and he says he’s surprised to be so much quicker than Verstappen after securing the biggest advantage in a dry qualifying session this season.

“Of course, same as in the last race and probably the last three races — in qualifying we’ve been ahead of them, which has been a bit of a surprise and today I definitely wasn’t expecting to have as big a gap as that.

“I was relatively comfortable with around a tenth or so ahead through most of the session but to pull out that extra bit of time, that felt great and it’s a great showing of the hard work of all the guys. We were here until midnight last night. The guys were here probably even later than that but it was really great work from everyone.”