Lewis Hamilton dominated qualifying to secure P1 on the grid for the Saturday Sprint at Sao Paulo ahead of Red Bull rival Max Verstappen and Mercedes team mate Valtteri Bottas.
In Q3, the Mercedes driver squeezed everything out of his new engine to set the fastest time of 1m07.934s and leave his rival second by 0.438s and Bottas third, another tenth off. With Hamilton’s new engine, however, comes a five-place grid penalty for Sunday’s Grand Prix.
Lewis is Happy with P1 today, he said: “Today was a really good qualifying session. I’m super happy with it. I don’t know what tomorrow will hold. I feel really grateful, it’s crazy because it’s been a while so it feels like the first”. after the qualifying.
Max Verstappen is happy with P2 given Lewis Hamilton’s five place grid drop penalty for Sunday’s race. The Dutchman feels Lewis’s fastest time in qualifying is down to new Mercedes engine. He said, “When they take a new engine naturally they have a bit more power for the weekend, so for me it’s not a big shock. I’m just happy to be second”.
Sergio Perez took fourth for Red Bull having closed the gap to Bottas ahead, while Pierre Gasly took a stellar fifth on the Sprint grid for AlphaTauri.
The Ferraris lined up sixth and seventh – Carlos Sainz ahead of Charles Leclerc – having outpaced the McLarens with Lando Norris ahead of Daniel Ricciardo in P9.
Neither Alfa Romeo made it to Q3, missing out in Q2 alongside AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda in P13, Sebastian Vettel of Aston Martin in P12 and Esteban Ocon of Alpine in P11 – behind team mate Fernando Alonso in 10th.
Lance Stroll was eliminated in Q1 and starts 16th on Saturday while, for the first time in a qualifying session, Williams’ George Russell was outpaced by his team mate Nicholas Latifi – the pair lining up 17th and 18th for the Sprint. The Haas cars of Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin line up on the back row.
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[…] Hamilton outqualified Verstappen by over four tenths on Friday to take P1 for Saturday’s Sprint, but he already has a five-place grid penalty for Sunday’s Grand Prix having taken a new Mercedes engine this weekend. […]
[…] Lewis Hamilton beat Max Verstappen to Sprint pole position by four-tenths of a second in qualifying …as the championship contenders locked out the front row of the grid for the sprint race. […]