While Lewis Hamilton may not have led a single session heading into qualifying for the British Grand Prix, he delivered when it mattered, the Briton sweeping to pole position and fending off a stern challenge from Mercedes team mate and strongest championship rival Valtteri Bottas, F1.com reports.
Reigning world champion Hamilton wasn’t too happy with the car after Friday practice and was unusually still making changes to his Silver Arrow ahead of qualifying. He later admitted those tweaks subsequently made the car worse, and you could believe it when he made a rare mistake in Q2, spinning at Luffield and dragging gravel onto the track to cause a red flag.
But as he has done so often in his illustrious career, Hamilton regrouped, zoned everything else out, and pieced together the fastest lap of the weekend to nail a track record and put pole position out of reach. In doing so, he also became the first driver to take seven poles at his home event. Bottas slotted into second, three tenths off the pace, with Max Verstappen in third for Red Bull, around one second adrift of Hamilton, such was the domination of Mercedes at the Northamptonshire track. They silver cars were 0.7s quicker than 2019, whereas Red Bull and Ferrari are both slower than they were in Q3 this time last year.
F1.com
