Lewis saves best till last
Hammy blitzes rivals with stunning final lap to snatch pole from Bottas
prickly fashion when a German journalist asked if he planned to see her perform later.
“There are concerts at every race,” Hamilton said. “I am focused on winning the race.”
His performance in qualifying has given him the chance to do just that.
The 66th pole of his career has moved him above Ayrton Senna into second place in the all-time list.
Hamilton is now only two short of Michael Schumacher’s pole record and could match it in front of a capacity crowd at Silverstone for next month’s British Grand Prix.
Bottas initially held the advantage over Hamilton yesterday after the English ace made a mistake during his first run.
But with the odds against him, Hamilton responded in emphatic fashion to take a second consecutive pole.
For Vettel, who holds a 1 2 - p oint lead over Hamilton in the title race, it has been a di f f icult weekend. He failed to trouble the time sheets on Friday before missing most of f inal practice with a hydraulic issue.
Although his Ferrari team managed to resolve the failure, Vettel was only fourth in qualifying – 1.3 secs slower than Hamilton.
Jolyon Palmer crashed on Friday before he was ruled out of qualifying after his Renault engine caught fire in the practice session.
The Engl ishman wi l l start from the back of the field but won’t occupy the f inal row following yet another troublesome weekend for McLaren.
Fernando Alonso is due to start last after serving a 40-place penalty following a raft of changes to his hapless Honda engine.
Team- mate Stoffel Vandoorne will start one place higher up after he was penalised 35 spots for new parts on his engine and a new gearbox.
Alonso was knocked out of Q1 for the first time this year with his sluggish Honda engine struggling for speed on the longest straight on the calendar.
He said: “Our speed is that slow that they think we are on a slow lap. But no this is our speed.”
The Spaniard is out of contract next year and has been linked with Mercedes.