Hamilton breaks record for pole position in Italy
Monza (Italy), Sept. Lewis Hamilton claimed pole position with a new lap record at Monza for Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix with Valtteri Bottas taking second in Saturday qualifying for another Mercedes front row lockout.
McLaren’s Carlos Sainz posted the third fastest time and is joined on the second row by Sergio Perez for Racing Point.
The session proved another humbling experience for out-of-sorts Ferrari with Sebastian Vettel going out in Q1 and Charles Leclerc, who won at the circuit last year, in Q2.
This means no Ferrari inside the top-10 at Monza for the first time since 1984.
The championship leader and six-time champion clocked a fastest lap in one minute and 18.887 seconds to beat the Finn by 0.069 seconds. In pure speed, Hamilton’s track lap record performance produced an unconfirmed fastest lap in F1 history.
It was Hamilton’s recordincreasing 94th career pole position, his sixth in seven races and his seventh in Italy.
“It wasn’t too bad,” said
5:
● With a fastest lap of one minute and
18.887 seconds, Lewis Hamilton sealed his career’s
68th pole position at Monza for the Italian Grand Prix, beating his Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas.
Hamilton, with a hint of a smile.
“It was a fantastic performance from the team — in terms of timing, when they put us out on the track,” said Hamilton, referring to Mercedes'’ avoidance of the jostling mass of cars seeking a slipstreaming tow from each other.
“It was not the easiest as you saw how close it is between us all so it demanded a really clean lap — and I felt I got that, so I am very happy,” he added.
Max Verstappen was fifth for Red Bull, Lando Norris qualified sixth in the second McLaren ahead of Daniel Ricciardo of Renault.