Lewis Hamilton took his 102nd career pole position, his fourth this year, qualifying in front of everyone in the first GP of Qatar. The Englishman from Mercedes was the fastest in Q3 and preceded the leader of the World Championship Max Verstappen, with the only Red Bull arriving in the last qualifying round. Third place for the second Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas. The top three in the rankings were interviewed by David Coulthard.
Lewis Hamilton (1st, Mercedes): “My first time here, it’s good to see new fans. Yesterday was a difficult day for me. I haven’t been feeling too good all Friday. I suffered a lot in the PL. I gritted my teeth and stayed here until midnight with the engineers. They always work until that time, they are really hard workers. I found places where we could improve and made changes for PL3. Apparently they worked and we got them into qualifying. I am very grateful for the timing with which they put us on the track, we never found traffic. The last lap was beautiful. This track is fantastic, incredibly fast. It gives good sensations. I had a stomach ache yesterday, but I slept great tonight and I’m much better. The track is so fast that it will not be easy for those behind it to follow. But there is also little tire degradation, we have seen that all three of us start with the mediums in front. The harder rubber I don’t know if it will be usable. We will see if it will be a one or two stop race. In turn 1 there is wind behind us, anything could happen “.
Max Verstappen (2nd, Red Bull): “I think we lack a bit of rhythm right now. It was a complicated weekend for us. In qualifying it was clear, and also in PL3, that we are struggling more than normal. I’m still second. Everything is at stake for tomorrow. We hope we can fight for something more. Decisive first corner? Hard to say. We have never raced here. There are so many unknowns. I don’t want to think too much about these things. We have to work on the start and then see how it turns out. We will look at the qualifications, we will examine them, and then we will concentrate on the race in general ”.
Valtteri Bottas (3rd, Mercedes): “I felt strong in the car yesterday, I don’t know what happened last night. I felt I didn’t have that much edge. In qualifying I struggled a lot, especially in turn 1, unlike yesterday, when I managed everything better. I am a little confused about what happened between yesterday and today. We have two cars against Max, I hope the grip on our side is better. We will certainly be able to do something ”.
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