Lewis Hamilton flexes his muscles in Qatar as he runs away with Saturday’s qualifying sessions.
LOSAIL, Qatar—After suffering a few disappointments season until his win in Brazil last weekend, Lewis Hamilton kept things moving in a positive direction by clocking a 1:20:827 in his Mercedes to take pole for Sunday’s Orreddo Grand Prix of Qatar. Hamilton finished ahead of rival Max Verstappen and teammate Valtteri Bottas.
Lewis Hamilton: It is the first time racing here, so good to see new fans. Yesterday was difficult for me as I wasn’t feeling too well on Thursday and Friday, and I struggled through practice. I had to dig deep. This track is amazing to drive, and it felt good. I don’t think it’s the easiest of circuits to follow, but it is not massively degrading on the tire.
Both Verstappen and Hamilton took the first two sessions, respectively, as Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi, the Haas duo of Nikita Mazepin and Mick Schumacher Williams Nicolas Latifi, were all knocked out of the first round. The second session produced a few upsets, Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo, Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll, the second Williams of George Russell, and–the biggest surprise of all–Red Bull’s Sergio Perez, never advanced to the final round.
Hamilton’s story was quite different as he was never really challenged, improving lap after lap.
Rival Verstappen never came close to claiming the pole. “I think we’re lacking a bit of pace,” commented a disappointed Verstappen. “We’ve not done a race here, so there are a lot of unknowns. We’ll see from there.”
As for the rest of the field, Alpha Tauri’s Pierre Gasly took fourth despite the Frenchman suffering a flat tire when he ran over a high curb and damaged his front wing, which pierced his front tire and stopping his car on the main straight. Fernando Alonso had one of his best qualifying runs this season by taking fifth in the Alpine, while Lando Norris was sixth in the McLaren. Carlos Sainz Jr. finished seventh in his Ferrari, with rookie Yuki Tsunoda, who had been doing well all week, taking eighth in the second Alpha Tauri. Another Alpine finished ninth with Esteban Ocon and Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel in tenth.
ESPN2 will televise Sunday’s race starting at 9a Eastern time.
