Hamilton and Bottas qualify one and two giving Mercedes another front-row lock.
SHAKIR, Bahrain—November 28th—Maybe Lewis Hamilton might have already clinched his seventh world title, but his competitiveness remains strong. The Briton took his 98th career pole for Sunday’s race at the Bahrain International Circuit by posting a 1:27:264 lap record. He finished ahead of teammate Valtteri Bottas and Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.
“I didn’t celebrate too much,” Hamilton said of his feat. “I was training and making sure I was ready for this and keeping my eye on the ball.”
Hamilton took all three sessions and never had any competition near him. Bottas, who was third most of the night, posted his final lap time to give the Mercedes team another 1-2 as Verstappen had to settle for another second row starting spot.
The sessions were mostly incident-free. The only event happened in the second session with 9:10 to go. Carlos Sainz Jr. spun in the first turn and could not continue, the victim of a technical issue. The red flag immediately came out and delayed the session for 10 minutes as the crane was the only thing that could move the car off the circuit.
Both Alfa Romeos of Antonio Giovinazzi and Kimi Raikkonen, along with the American Haas F1 Team of Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean, and Williams Nicholas Latifi, exited the opening session. Both Ferraris of Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc, with the Racing Point of Lance Stroll, Williams’ second driver George Russell and Sainz, departed from the second.
Alex Albon, who escaped a heavy crash Friday night in practice two, placed his Red Bull in the best of the rest in fourth, while Sergio Perez came on strong at the end in the second Racing Point in fifth.
Daniel Ricciardo and Esteban Ocon placed both of their Renaults in sixth and seventh, respectively, while Pierre Gasly and Dani Kvyat finished Alpha Tauri’s in eighth and tenth. Lando Norris took ninth in the second McLaren.
For Hamilton, now that the battle for the world championship in both categories is over, the tension has now eased off, giving him more of an opportunity just to drive normally. “With the pressure a little bit off, it’s a bit of a release to go and drive like I just did,” Hamilton surmised.
