LEW FIRSTY FOR POLE
With 10-place grid penalty, Hamilton faces uphill battle to hold off rival Verstappen
LEWIS HAMILTON admits he must secure pole position in Istanbul today if he is to keep Max Verstappen at bay in their engrossing world-title battle.
But even if Hamilton is fastest in qualifying, the Mercedes man will need to carve his way through the field in tomorrow’s Turkish Grand Prix, as he bids to overcome a 10-place grid penalty.
Hamilton was hit with the sanction for taking his fourth engine of the year – one more than is permitted – with Mercedes concerned about reliability issues.
However, he will avoid starting last, as he is changing only the internal combustion engine and not a full power unit.
And he is now focused on finishing on top of the time sheets to limit the damage, with Red Bull’s Verstappen just two points adrift in the title race.
The good news for Hamilton was his performance in practice yesterday, as his tuned-up Mercedes engine helped power him to the top of the pile in both sessions.
And even more promising was the sight of Verstappen (right) languishing in fifth in the day’s concluding session, 0.635sec adrift of his championship rival.
Even so, Hamilton knows he is facing a damage limitation mission and conceded he will have his work cut out to mount a comeback.
“I need to be on pole to limit the loss,” said the seven-time world champion. “I think I’ll be able to find a little bit tonight and hopefully into tomorrow, if it’s not raining. “Then I’ll have a lot of work to do on Sunday. Either way, I’m just going to try and focus on how I can get the best out of it.
“Ferrari are going to be hard to pass, as are Renault and McLaren. They seem to be improving more and more throughout the year.”
Hamilton will be hoping those rival teams can continue to show their speed today and ensure a downbeat Verstappen is not in the hunt for the front of the grid.
Having struggled with understeer in both sessions yesterday, Verstappen was quizzed about his own chances of landing pole position.
“I don’t know yet,” said the Dutchman, who mounted his own comeback mission last time after an engine change by finishing second behind Hamilton at the Russian Grand Prix.
“Hopefully, of course, it will improve, otherwise it’s not looking too good,” he added. “We’ve got a bit of an evening ahead to make it a bit better because today wasn’t the best of days.”
Red Bull team principal Christian Horner admitted: “We have a balance mishmash at the moment.
“We just need to understand the issue. We have a good car and it’s just about getting into that performance window.”