Hamilton rained supreme to blast his way to pole position
Lewis Hamilton dominated the wet conditions to see off Max Verstappen and take pole position for today’s Styrian Grand Prix.
Even before yesterday’s rain-hit delayed qualifying session, the six-time world champion had long staked his claim as one of the sport’s finest to ever race in the wet – and here he delivered an absolute masterclass.
Hamilton finished a staggering 1.2 seconds faster than Verstappen, with Mclaren’s Carlos Sainz third. Valtteri Bottas, in the same machinery as Hamilton, was 1.5 seconds behind his team-mate in fourth. Hamilton, who earlier urged his race engineer Pete Bonnington to “leave him to it” over the team radio, topped all three sessions before claiming the 89th pole of his career – and first in his pursuit this year to match Michael Schumacher’s record of seven world titles.
As his rivals faltered, Hamilton banged in fastest lap after fastest lap on his way to completing one of the mostimpressive qualifying performances in recent memory.
“I love these days,” said Hamilton. “The weather is incredibly difficult for all of us. A lot of the time you can’t see where you are going.
“I had a big moment where I aquaplaned and had my heart in my mouth but I was able to improve. I didn’t make any
Max Verstappen
mistakes so that is always a positive.” Verstappen, who spun at the final corner on his last lap, said: “Second is still good. It was tricky out there. The last lap was better but wouldn’t have been enough to beat Lewis.” Lando Norris became the youngest British driver to stand on top of a Formula One podium with a fine drive to third in Austria last weekend. The Mclaren star carried on his impressive form to finish in sixth, one spot behind Renault’s Esteban Ocon. However, he will be bumped back three places following a grid penalty for a yellowflag infringement on Friday.
George Russell was among the standout performers in the tricky conditions.
The 22-year-old, now in his second season, made it out of Q1 for the first time in his career, and then put his Williams in 12th.
Charles Leclerc took advantage of a late safety car to take an unlikely second in the season-opening race, but the man from Monaco failed to progress to the top-10 shoot-out, finishing 11th.
His Ferrari-teammate, Sebastian Vettel, will line up just one place ahead of his team-mate in 10th.