LEWIS’ TON-UP DAY DENIED BY BOTTAS
VALTTERI BOTTAS denied Lewis Hamilton his 100th pole position after pipping him to top spot for today’s Portuguese Grand Prix. The Mercedes drivers locked out the front row of the grid for the third round of the season, split by seven thousandths of a second.
Hamilton’s championship rival Maxverstappen ran in a disappointing third for Red Bull, four tenths back.
Sergio Perez finished fourth in the other Red Bull with Brit driver Lando Norris seventh in his Mclaren.
Hamilton was bidding to become the first Formula
One driver to reach three figures, but his wait will go on for at least another week after Bottas spoilt the world champion’s centurion party. The current championship points leader finished his first run behind his team-mate.
And ahead of his final attempt he ditched the softest rubber for the medium tyre.
But he was unable to improve on his time and was forced to settle for second.
“It is a good feeling to be on pole,” said Bottas. “It feels like it has been a while.
It has been a weak point for me in the first two races but being on pole puts me in a good position.”
Hamilton said: “It was a great job byvaltteri and for us as a team.we have to be happy with that. It was not the perfect lap but I gave it everything.”
Verstappen’s first effort at pole was deleted after he made a mistake at the left-handed fourth corner and exceeded track limits. The Dutchman, who is a single point behind
Hamilton in the standings, returned for one final attempt but never looked like challenging the Mercedes men.
“I struggled a lot with the grip,” said Verstappen. “That first lap was decent but I had a big moment through turn four and went off the track.
“It is not ideal to be third but we will try and fight them in the race.”
Elsewhere, George Russell qualified 11th, his best result for Williams. The young British star, 23, finished just 0.057sec shy of making it through to Q3.
Daniel Ricciardo has been outclassed by Norris since joining Mclaren.the Australian was leapfrogged in the final moments and finished 16th, more than one second slower than Norris.