99 AND GOT ’EM LICKED!
Ice man Lew takes pole at Imola
LEWIS HAMILTON claimed the 99th pole position of his Formula One career in a fascinating qualifying session for today’s Emilia Romagna GP.
Sergio Perez beat his Red Bull team-mate Max Verstappen to line up behind Hamilton at Imola.
Dutchman Verstappen will start in third place using the same medium tryes as Hamilton while Perez is set to opt for soft compounds.
Mercedes were expecting to struggle again coming into the weekend after being on the back foot during the opening weekend of the season in Bahrain – despite Hamilton claiming victory.
The world champion and his team-mate Valtteri Bottas were top of the timing screens during Friday’s practice, with the Red Bull of Verstappen fastest in final practice. So it was all to play for come qualifying – but it was Hamilton’s first flying lap in Q3 that sealed the deal for the Brit.
Sounding almost shocked on his driver’s mic as he crossed the line, Hamilton said later: “The day’s been great. I definitely didn’t expect us to be ahead of two Red Bulls. They’ve been so quick this weekend, there were times they were six-tenths ahead.
“We didn’t really know where we’d be but the car was already feeling a lot better from the beginning this weekend so respect to the team to really narrow down the window.
“I love the challenge – it’s great we’ve got the two Red Bulls there.
“It’s going to definitely make the strategy harder and it’s going to be tough because they’ve got great race pace.” Verstappen was less happy and said: “In
Q3 I went off at turn three. It was a bit messy and not a very good lap.
“But it can’t be good every time so we’ll see what went wrong. It was definitely not the easiest in Q3.
“P3 is a good starting position and it’s going to be interesting. We have the two cars on different tyres so let’s see how that one will work out.”
Bottas will have his work cut out after he could only manage eighth on the grid.
He said: “On Q3 in the first run I had a sudden snap from the rear end and it really continued through sector 1 and I lost a lot of time. And actually it was the same thing in run two.
“It was never there – I couldn’t trust the rear end of the car. We need to investigate what went wrong but for sure it’s disappointing.”