Lewis Hamilton overcame a gastrointestinal illness and secured pole position for the Qatar Grand Prix with a remarkable qualifying lap, displacing his title rival Max Verstappen by almost half a second.
Hamilton, who was 14 points behind Verstappen before the third-to-last Grand Prix weekend of the season, delivered the perfect lap in Q3, securing the 102nd pole of his career.
“The last lap was wonderful. It was a really sweet lap, ”said the Briton.
“Yesterday was a really difficult day as I wasn’t feeling that good, so I had problems throughout FP1 and FP2. I had to dig deep, I was here until midnight last night working with the engineers. We have found many areas in which we can improve. “
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How to watch the 2021 Qatar Grand Prix: UK start time, TV channel, live stream, tables and starting grid
Verstappen job made difficult
The lap time of 1: 20.827 is evidence of a successful Mercedes weekend in Qatar. The Silver Arrows dominated the practice sessions on Friday and were both three tenths of a second ahead of Verstappen in FP3 earlier on Saturday.
In view of his speed, Hamilton admitted his surprise at being so much faster than the Red Bulls: “It’s the same as in the last race. We were probably ahead of the last three races in qualifying, which was a bit of a surprise, and I definitely didn’t expect such a big deficit today.
“I was relatively comfortable with about a tenth of a lead for most of the session, but being able to squeeze out that extra time – it felt great.”
Verstappen struck back with a disciplined flying lap himself during qualifying to separate Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas.
But he was a lonely Red Bull on the Losail International Circuit when Q3 came to an end. When Verstappen set his lap time, team-mate Sergio Perez was back at the base.
The Mexican was eliminated in the second quarter despite having switched to the soft compound tire. Mistakes in his flying lap – particularly the failure to utilize the wide Qatar stretch – meant that he was able to qualify in eleventh place.
That means that Verstappen has to fight two Mercedes without his support man. Challenging Hamilton one-on-one is tough enough, but when the British driver has a teammate he can rely on at Bottas, Verstappen really needs his own buddy by his side.
Starting line-up for the 2021 Qatar Grand Prix
Race is scheduled to begin at 2 p.m. UK time
- 1. Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes)
- 2. Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri)
- 3. Fernando Alonso (Alpine)
- 4. Lando Norris (McLaren)
- 5. Carlos Sainz (Ferrari)
- 6. Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes) *
- 7. Max Verstappen (Red Bull) **
- 8. Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri)
- 9. Esteban Ocon (Alpine)
- 10. Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin)
- 11. Sergio Perez (Red Bull)
- 12.Lance walk (Aston Martin)
- 13. Charles Leclerc (Ferrari)
- 14. Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren)
- 15. George Russell (Williams)
- 16. Kimi Raikkonen (Alfa Romeo)
- 17. Nicholas Latifi (Williams)
- 18. Antonio Giovinazzi (Alfa Romeo)
- 19. Mick Schumacher (Haas)
- 20.Nikita Mazepin (Haas)
* Bottas qualified for third place but received a penalty for starting three places for ignoring yellow flags
** Verstappen qualified second but received a starting penalty of five places for ignoring the double-waved yellow flags
“I think we lack the pace a little, I think it’s more difficult for us again, [Perez] isn’t even in Q3 so it shows we’re fighting a little more than usual. I wish we could have fought for more, “said Verstappen.
“We didn’t race here, so there are a lot of unknowns, I don’t think about it much, focus on the start, we’ll see. We will concentrate on the race in general. “
For Bottas, not starting from the front row was a heavy blow given his impressive pace in the three training sessions. In qualifying he was outclassed by Hamilton on all three occasions and couldn’t find the pace to rule out the grid.
“I really had to push a lot in qualifying,” said Bottas. “I had quite a problem at Turn 1, but I did my best, but I’m a little confused about what happened to the car overnight.
“Personally, I don’t have much to lose and I hope the grip is good, but we have two cars against Max so hopefully we can do something.”
Ferrari and McLaren slip
Perez, meanwhile, wasn’t the only driver caught in the second quarter. The battle for superiority in midfield between Ferrari and McLaren raged the whole season, but both Charles Leclerc and Daniel Ricciardo were ousted from the final qualifying.
Ricciardo said his car just “didn’t have the pace” to make the top 10 and said, “It’s been tough just moving forward. There’s still a lot to see and work on.
“We’ve done enough laps to have a good idea of the track, but it’s about figuring out the long corners. On this track they reveal some of the difficulties with this car, and I am likely to have some difficulties. “
As for Leclerc, he was equally confused about where his Ferrari’s pace was going, especially after switching to softs.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc admitted he struggled to fight for grip during qualifying for the Qatar Grand Prix (Photo: AFP)
“I have no idea, I really have no idea,” he said. “I was slow throughout qualifying. So it’s good to understand what went wrong … I have no explanations.
“It’s a strange qualifying and I’m not in the right group. I never had the feeling of having the tires in the right window and just slipping through. I was limited by grip. There were no bad mistakes, no balance problems, just grip. I didn’t have enough grip. “
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