Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Hamilton hits the Bullseye
LEW: POLE IS A SURPRISE
LEWIS HAMILTON delivered a stunning lap to claim the 99th pole position of his career for today’s Emilia Romagna Grand Prix.
And the seven-time World champion was as surprised as anyone to finish at the summit of the time charts at Imola.
Max Verstappen, in his speedier Red Bull, had been expected to land his second pole in as many rounds – only for Hamilton to produce another a vintage qualifying display.
He beat Red Bull driver Sergio Perez by just 0.035sec withVerstappen finishing third fastest.
To sum up Hamilton’s feat, his Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas was only eighth and was almost half-a-second adrift.
He said: “I definitely didn’t expect us to be ahead of two Red Bulls. I think they’ve been so quick this weekend, there were times they were six 10ths 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 my respect to the team for the hard work to really narrow down the window.
“I am just amazed at how close it is, and how exciting that is, because it really adds to the fire and the adrenaline rush.
“I didn’t know whether Max or Sergio had improved on that last lap for quite some time, so I was definitely nervous.
“But I knew going into qualifying it was going to take something special and the most perfect lap I could do, and a little bit more, in order to beat the Red Bulls because they have been so fast all weekend.
“Nobody within the team expected us to be on pole but that is what I was gunning for.”
Hamilton got the business done with his first of two laps in Q3. He failed to improve on his second run, as did Verstappen.
The Dutchman
(right), who fluffed his lines in
Bahrain last month when he performed an illegal overtake on Hamilton for the win, made another mistake yesterday by running wide at turn three.
It means he will be two grid spots back at a track where overtaking is among the hardest of any races on the calendar.
Hamilton added: “It is going to be close throughout the season and it’s going to take laps like that and us as a team performing as close to perfection as possible and not leaving any stone unturned. “I know that is the idea going into most weekends, but we cannot afford any slip-ups and so far we have been firing on all cylinders.
“We are all operating at such a high level and there are milliseconds between us all.”
Ferrari driver Charles Leclerc finished fourth while Lando Norris will start seventh.
The young Brit had briefly put his McLaren on the front row, but his time was deleted for exceeding track limits.