Things might still go wrong, of course, but McLaren's gamble to switch the car's floor and exhaust system for "something simpler" appears to have paid huge dividends. Hamilton certainly thinks so. "It was a brave decision to go back on what we did over the winter," he said.
"Since I've been here we've never, ever done that before. But the car feels like a huge improvement for us and it's a great stepping stone.
I know we've got some good things in the pipeline.
"At least we're in the fight [for the championship]. From there we can score good points." If that is the case, team principal Martin Whitmarsh and his design team led by Paddy Lowe deserve huge credit for having the courage to make such a game-changing decision.
McLaren Group chairman Ron Dennis, watching on from the pits, was so stirred by what he had witnessed that he interrupted a post-qualifying interview with one of his drivers, Jenson Button, to offer his old sparring partner Eddie Jordan a slice of "humble" pie. The Irishman had been highly critical of McLaren's policy of alternating chief designers each year in a pre-season interview.
In Jordan's defence, he had pointed out that what McLaren needed was a "whole new car" which is pretty much what they have.
No matter that they have performed what one source described as a "cut and paste job" on Red Bull's exhaust system. Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery. The wonder is that it seems to have fitted so seamlessly.
Button, who starts Sunday's race from fourth on the grid, was also encouraged. "It's a massive step forward to what we had in testing," he said. "It's still in the early state this car, because we haven't done much testing, so for it to be reliable and reasonably quick we should be very happy."
McLaren will be even more delighted at the unexpected problems encountered by Ferrari and Mercedes, both of whom were expected to be well ahead of them.
They still might be in terms of race pace. Ferrari's Fernando Alonso claimed we did not see his car's "true" performance potential.
"The distance to Sauber, Toro Rosso, Renault, in winter testing we were one second ahead of them and here it is only 0.2-0.3secs," the Spaniard said. "I suspect this was not normal pace from us and we will get better and better tomorrow."
Mercedes also claimed they would be stronger in race pace but alarm bells will be ringing at Michael Schumacher's inability to make it out of second qualifying.
The seven-time world champion, who starts from 11th on the grid, told The Daily Telegraph this week that there would be "no excuses" this year.
A faulty KERS device on Saturday sorely tested that promise. "Clearly that was not an ideal start to the season, and I cannot deny that I am disappointed," the German said. "Our performance did not turn out as we expected. From our testing experience, we were around the pace of Ferrari. However this did not translate today."
It was a better day for British debutant Paul di Resta, at least on a personal level. The Scot out-qualified his team mate Adrian Sutil, which is all you can ask of a driver, but Force India proved to be the slowest of the established teams. Di Resta starts from 14th place this morning.
At least he is not in a Hispania Racing machine. Their two cars will most likely not start at all, having fallen foul of the new '107 per cent rule', which excludes cars from racing which have not managed to set a time within 107 per cent of the quickest car in Q1.
HRT can still be handed an exemption by the stewards but they should not get one. Formula One is not a finishing school, goes the saying.
You either arrive prepared or prepare to fail.
McLaren, with their 11th hour improvements, may just prove the exception to the rule.
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