Hamilton records fastest-ever lap as he stays dominant
Lewis Hamilton said Formula One’s plan to slow him down was bound to fail after he set the fastest lap ever recorded in the sport to take pole position for Sunday’s Italian Grand Prix.
Hamilton flew around Monza’s 3.54 miles and 11 corners of asphalt in a staggering average speed of 164.267mph. He edged out Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas by seven hundredths, with Mclaren driver Carlos Sainz a surprise third.
On a bleak afternoon for Ferrari, Charles Leclerc and Sebastian Vettel finished 13th and 17th respectively. It marks the first time in 36 years that both scarlet cars will start their home race outside of the top 10.
With Ferrari in the midst of their worst crisis in a generation, Hamilton continues his crushing stranglehold of the sport.
This was his 94th career pole, his seventh in Monza, and he will start as the favourite to win for a 90th time today, moving him to within just one victory of Michael Schumacher’s record.
Hamilton’s mindboggling lap – which eclipsed Kimi Raikkonen’s average speed of 163.785mph set by the former Ferrari driver here in 2018 – came after the FIA outlawed a highperformance engine setting, believed to have benefited the world champion and
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his Mercedes team.
Sainz, the first non-mercedes car, finished more than eight tenths behind Hamilton. Max Verstappen was almost a full second back in fifth.
“I did say that they brought in this new rule to slow us down but it wasn’t going to make a difference,” said Hamilton. “We have a great, great car and we are better in other areas.
“This is definitely the best we have been in Monza. We have got the car in a sweet spot.”
Hamilton led a procession in Belgium a week ago and today he is expected to claim his sixth win from eight rounds
Mercedes’ supremacy is in stark contrast to that of Ferrari. Chief executive Louis Camilleri has, publicly at least, given his backing to beleaguered team principal Mattia Binotto.
In 70 editions of their home race, reliability issues aside, Ferrari have always had at least one car in the top 10. That streak would now appear in grave danger.