Hamilton takes pole ahead of Bottas
IT FEELS GREAT TO BE BACK IN FRANCE, HE SAYS
Lewis Hamilton secured pole position for the French Grand Prix ahead of his teammate Valtteri Bottas as Mercedes dominated yesterday’s crash-hit qualifying session to sweep the front row of the grid.
The four-time world champion clocked a best lap in one minute and 30.029 seconds to grab the 75th pole position of his career ahead of Bottas, giving himself a perfect chance to regain the initiative in the title race in today’s race.
Championship leader, and fellow four-time world champion, Sebastian Vettel of Ferrari was third, three-tenths off the pace, ahead of Max Verstappen and his Red Bull teammate Australian Daniel Ricciardo.
Kimi Raikkonen was sixth in the second Ferrari ahead of Carlos Sainz of Renault, Charles Leclerc of Sauber, Kevin Magnussen and his Haas teammate Romain Grosjean, who crashed during the top-ten shootout, halting the session for eight minutes. “That wasn’t too bad,” said Hamilton. “It feels great to be back in France — it’s a beautiful
I pushed hard and probably pushed too much and was playing catch up. I think we can be happy with third for tomorrow. I think we have a good car.”
Lewis Hamilton » Mercedes driver
place and we got a great response from the crowd.”
“I think we definitely needed it,” Bottas said. “It is going to be close all season. It would have definitely helped us in Montreal.”
The final moments of qualifying became a duel between the Mercedes drivers, with Bottas going top just before Hamilton crossed the line for a leading time of 1 minute, 30.029 seconds.
Third pole of season
It was the third pole of the season for the 33-year-old Hamilton. “I was confident I could improve for the final attempt,” Vettel said about his last flying lap that came up short. “I pushed hard and probably pushed too much and was playing catch up. I think we can be happy with third for tomorrow. I think we have a good car.” Heavy rain kept cars mostly in their garages during Saturday’s final practice. The track had mostly dried out in time for qualifying, but a light drizzle returned midway through the hour-long session. Bottas posted the top time of the washedout third practice session.
The biggest loser from qualifying was Romain Grosjean, who lost control and put the nose of his Haas into the barrier after having made the cut for the 10 fastest drivers. He told his team he was unharmed over the radio.
Fernando Alonso failed to get out of the first qualifying section, which culls the slowest five drivers, along with McLaren partner Stoffel Vandoorne and both Williams cars.