Lewis Hamilton delivered another mega-lap to claim his 66th pole position, topping the timing screens at the end of qualifying for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix.
Like in Canada, Hamilton kept his best for last, digging deep under the long shadows of the Baku City Circuit to depose his Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas who will start the grand prix in second.
In the end it all came down to a singly flying lap at the very end of Q3.
With 3.33 minutes remaining in qualifying – just as everyone was ready for a final banzai lap – Daniel Ricciardo tagged the wall exiting Turn 6 with the left rear of his Red Bull which stopped in the middle of the track, prompting a red flag period as the marshals cleared the car from the track.
At that point, the smart money would have been on Bottas who topped the timing screens. Reason being that it was taking two laps to heat up the Pirelli red band tyres and get them working in an optimum window. Three and a half minutes would only allow for one flyer in the final moments.
It would take something very special to unseat Bottas from pole, and indeed it came in the form of another jaw dropping Hamilton lap. A truly champion lap which was almost half a second better than his closest rival Bottas and over a second up on the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen who was third quickest.
Hamilton said afterwards, “That was one of the most exciting laps I’ve had all year. A lot of pressure as we’ve been struggling with getting temperature in the tyres, I was just praying it was enough.”
“I’m so pumped with that. Our team worked hard to get us back out there for one last lap. Amazing,” added the triple F1 World Champion.
Report in progress…
Read the full story at GRAND PRIX 247
No comments:
Post a Comment