Hamilton ‘flies’ to pole in Qatar

Losail, Qatar, Nov 20 (EFE).- Lewis Hamilton on Saturday stormed to his record-extending 102nd pole position ahead of the Qatar Grand Prix.

The Mercedes driver covered the 5,380-meter Losail circuit in one minute and 20.827s, nearly half a second (0.455s) faster than the overall leader, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

“Felt like we were flying out there, what a special lap,” the seven-time world champion posted to his Twitter account afterwards. “Little changes add up to a big difference. Great work team! See you tomorrow”.

Meanwhile, the Dutchman, who leads Hamilton by 14 points in the drivers’ standings, told F1 media afterwards: “I think just lacking a bit of pace, I think it’s just been a bit more tricky for us.”

Hamilton’s teammate Valtteri Bottas will kick off Sunday’s race from the second row, alongside Frenchman Pierre Gasly (Alpha Tauri).

“I struggled quite a bit, especially in Turn 1,” Bottas said after the qualifiers. “Need to have a look but obviously I tried my best, but little bit confused about what happened to the car overnight”.

Alpine’s Spanish driver Fernando Alonso came fifth, ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris and Ferarri’s Carlos Sainz.

Japanese Yuki Tsunoda (Alpha Tauri), Frenchman Esteban Ocon (Alpine) and German Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin) completed the top-10 respectively. EFE

Arh/ta/jt