HAMILTON SCORES 98TH POLE POSITION IN BAHRAIN
Lewis Hamilton added to his pole position tally in Bahrain. Image: LAT
Lewis Hamilton led throughout every stage of qualifying in Bahrain to lead a Mercedes 1-2.
By HEATH McALPINE
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen did challenge the pair early in Q3, trailing by just 0.146s, but Hamilton further improved by a 0.250s to a 1m 27.264s taking pole position number 98.
“You know I came today and I was like, ‘let’s just have fun and enjoy’ and that’s the most important thing, to enjoy what you’re doing, and with the pressure a little bit off, it’s a bit of a release to go and drive like I just did,” said Hamilton.
Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas slotted into second, but was at a loss as to why he wasn’t able to challenge Hamilton during the session. However, the front-row start represented the 75th time the team had locked out a Formula 1 front-row and the fifth consecutive time it had done so in Bahrain.
Tyre degradation is set to be a major factor, which Verstappen is confident his Red Bull team are set-up well to deal with. He starts third, but believes he can challenge the Mercedes pair from the clean side of the grid as he admitted the team had placed higher emphasis on the race set-up.
Alongside Verstappen, Alex Albon recovered well from a practice crash to equal his best qualifying result.
Racing Point’s Sergio Perez lines up in fifth ahead of Daniel Ricciardo, who waited until Q3 to reveal his true form.
The Australian again outpaced Renault teammate Esteban Ocon, but only by 0.002s.
Winner at Monza, Pierre Gasly was eighth ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris and fellow AlphaTauri driver Daniil Kvyat, who completed the top 10.
Both Ferrari drivers were knocked out in Q2, as was Carlos Sainz due to a mechanical problem.
Again, George Russell impressed to make Q2 as Antonio Giovinazzi, Kimi Raikonen, Kevin Magnussen, Romain Grosjean and Nicholas Latifi failed to make it out of Q1.
Russell starts 14th after Sainz spun and was unable to restart causing a red flag.
Kvyat just scraped through as Sebastian Vettel, Charles Leclerc and Racing Point’s Lance Stroll failed to better his time as the top 10 all crucially made the cut on medium tyres, the preferred starting rubber.
The Bahrain Grand Prix kicks off a triple-header for Formula 1 in the Middle East, with the event set to take place at 1:10am AEST.
Correction – It was Lewis Hamilton’s 98th career pole position.
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