Vettel takes Azerbaijan pole ahead of Hamilton after crash-strewn qualifying
Ferrari’s championship leader Sebastian Vettel smiled with relief after he had claimed pole for today’s Azerbaijan Grand Prix ahead of Lewis Hamilton for Mercedes-GP in a crashstrewn qualifying session.
The German, who leads the defending four-time champion by nine points after three races this season, clocked a best lap of 1 minute, 41.498 seconds for the fastest time of the session.
It was an emphatic demonstration of his and Ferrari’s pace after he had struggled in practice on Friday.
It was his third consecutive pole position and the 53rd of his career. “In the end, I knew I had the car I wanted and it did what I wanted ... The first lap was good and it was good enough in the end so I am happy,” said Vettel, the four-time world champion.
Hamilton was 0.179 seconds adrift after an improved showing that left him ahead of Mercedes-GP teammate Valtteri Bottas, Daniel Ricciardo and his Red Bull Racing teammate Max Verstappen.
“That was close,” said Hamilton, who has yet to win in 2018 and is without a victory in six races stretching back to the end of last season.
“We did the best job we could and I think I lost a little bit in the final sector, but Sebastian did a great job. We are in the mix and I am hoping to give him a hard time in the race.”
Bottas, who was second in Baku last year and has been runner-up in the past two races, said: “We can fight them here and we are starting very close. This race can be crazy, but we have a good starting point.”
Kimi Raikkonen wound up sixth in the second Ferrari after a huge slide on his final flying lap when he had looked as if he would join teammate Vettel on the front row.
Of where it went wrong, the 2007 world champion said: “I took it easily on the entry to make sure and just got some really odd snap and lost it and didn’t spin but I knew once I got snap it was gone. “I had a very good lap and it would have been the best possible outcome but a small mistake and then you have that huge straight and it’s gone.”
Esteban Ocon was seventh ahead of his Force India teammate Sergio Perez, Nico Hulkenberg who faces a fiveplace grid penalty for a gearbox change, and his Renault teammate Carlos Sainz.
Today’s race begins at 4.10pm UAE time.