Lewis Hamilton delivered one of his most dominant qualifying performances of the season to take pole position for the inaugural Qatar Grand Prix ahead of title rival Max Verstappen in second and team mate Valtteri Bottas in P3.
“That last lap was beautiful. It was a really sweet lap. This track is amazing to drive. Woo, it felt good!”– said seven time World Champion after taking his 102 career pole.
Everyone thought Red Bull and Max Verstappen are the favorites to take the pole given their car suites for Qatar track layout. But 0.455 seconds gap to pole is really baffling to everyone including Championship leader Verstappen. “I think just lacking a bit of pace, I think it’s just been a bit more tricky for us. Checo’s not even in Q3 so it shows that we are struggling a bit more than normal”– said the Dutchman after struggling to match Mercedes pace.
The second Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas slotted into third, ahead of Pierre Gasly, who had the shine taken off his stunning performance when he ran well wide at the penultimate corner. That dragged him onto a kerb, which shattered his front wing and led to a puncture.
“I struggled quite a bit, especially in Turn 1. Need to have a look but obviously I tried my best, but little bit confused about what happened to the car overnight”- Valtteri Bottas after the qualifying on Saturday.
That forced some drivers to back out of their final results, though Fernando Alonso’s first effort was still good enough for a very impressive fifth in what is his second top-five start in the last five races.
Lando Norris put McLaren sixth, to give them the edge in the tight fight with Ferrari for P3 in the constructors’ championship but Carlos Sainz was only a place behind for the Scuderia, as he outqualified his team mate Charles Leclerc for the third successive race.
Yuki Tsunoda continued his great weekend in Qatar with eighth, putting both AlphaTauris in the top 10 for the fourth time in five races. Esteban Ocon made Q3 for the first time since Russia and will start ninth with Sebastian Vettel closing out the top 10, following his first Q3 in eight races.
Sergio Perez missed out to reach Q3 after finishing in P11 ahead of Lance Stroll in P12. Charles Leclerc joins the surprise Q2 elimination list along with Daniel Ricciardo, after qualifying in P13 and P14 respectively.
The Ferrari man struggled all weekend long to get a better lap from his SF21, it’s gonna be long race tomorrow for him. George Russell qualified in P15 for Williams ahead of Kimi Raikkonen in P16 and team mate Nicholas Latifi in P17.
Antonio Giovinazzi leads Haas duo in the battle for bottom three positions, while Mick Schumacher once again outqualifies his team mate with P19 finish.
[…] Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton will start the Qatar Grand Prix from pole position after a stunning final lap in Q3, taking pole by four and a half tenths of a second. This will be 102nd career pole position of Lewis’ career and his 76th with the Team. […]