Lewis Hamilton clinched his 95th career pole position and 69th for Mercedes in qualifying for Sunday’s Tuscan Formula 1 Grand Prix.
Hamilton leads another Mercedes one-two
Valtteri Bottas had led the way through practice, but Mercedes teammate Hamilton came through in the clutch and snatched pole for the inaugural Tuscan Grand Prix at Mugello.
Hamilton spent much of practice getting comfortable with the new track, nestled in the Tuscan hills, rather than chasing outright lap time.
Bottas led the way after Q1, with a few hundredths of a second separating the Silver Arrows, but Hamilton then ramped it up in Q2 to lead a session for the first time over the race weekend.
In the first runs in Q3, Hamilton once again set the pace, with Bottas within 0.06s, but all hope was not lost as there was still one run to go. However, Renault’s Esteban Ocon got it all wrong on his lap, spinning and bringing out the yellow flags, which forced much of the field to back off.
The running of the Tuscan Grand Prix qualifying gave Mercedes their seventh consecutive front row lockout – two short of the Formula One record set in 2014-15 by Hamilton and Nico Rosberg.
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen took third with teammate Alex Albon joining him on the second row of the grid for the first time this season. Verstappen has out-qualified his teammate in every race so far but this is the first time there will be nobody separating them on the grid.
Charles Leclerc was able to coax a fifth-place lap out of the struggling Ferrari while his outgoing Scuderia teammate Sebastian Vettel was down in 14th.
The Racing Point’s of Lance Stroll and Sergio Perez outdid midfield rivals Renault, taking sixth and seventh respectively.
Monza winner Pierre Gasly was brought back down to earth and will start from 16th on the grid on Sunday.
Starting grid for Tuscan Formula 1 Grand Prix
1st row
Lewis Hamilton (GBR/Mercedes)
Valtteri Bottas (FIN/Mercedes)
2nd row
Max Verstappen (NED/Red Bull-Honda)
Alexander Albon (THA/Red Bull-Honda)
3rd row
Charles Leclerc (MON/Ferrari)
Lance Stroll (CAN/Racing Point-Mercedes)
4th row
Sergio Perez (MEX/Racing Point-Mercedes)
Daniel Ricciardo (AUS/Renault)
5th row
Carlos Sainz Jr (ESP/McLaren-Renault)
Estéban Ocon (FRA/Renault)
6th row
Lando Norris (GBR/McLaren-Renault)
Daniil Kvyat (RUS/AlphaTauri-Honda)
7th row
Kimi Raikkonen (FIN/Alfa Romeo Racing-Ferrari)
Sebastian Vettel (GER/Ferrari)
8th row
Romain Grosjean (FRA/Haas-Ferrari)
Pierre Gasly (FRA/AlphaTauri-Honda)
9th row
Antonio Giovinazzi (ITA/Alfa Romeo Racing-Ferrari)
George Russell (GBR/Williams-Mercedes)
10th row
Nicholas Latifi (CAN/Williams-Mercedes)
Kevin Magnussen (DEN/Haas-Ferrari)
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