Emilia Romagna GP: Lewis Hamilton sees off the Red Bulls to seize his 99th pole | Other Sports News

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Lewis Hamilton celebrated his 99th Formula One pole place after seeing off Red Bull’s Sergio Perez and Max Verstappen in qualifying for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Imola on Saturday.

Mexican Perez, in solely his second race for Red Bull, strains up alongside Mercedes’ seven-time world champion for what shall be his first entrance row begin.  

Verstappen, quickest in last follow at the Italian circuit and chasing a hat-trick of poles, had to accept third with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc a robust fourth on a house observe for the revived Italian workforce. 

Hamilton did sufficient with his first flying lap of 1 minute 14.411 seconds, however Perez got here shut at the finish with an effort solely 0.035 slower.

“I definitely didn’t expect us to be ahead of two Red Bulls,” mentioned Hamilton, who received the season-opener in Bahrain final month after Verstappen began on pole. “I believe they’ve been so fast this weekend, there have been instances after they had been six-tenths forward. I got here round the final nook and heard I’d obtained the pole and I used to be tremendous grateful,” added the 36-year-old, who has now taken poles on a file 30 completely different circuits.

Perez, who boasts greater than a decade of expertise in Formula One, was introduced in to put extra stress on Mercedes than Verstappen’s latest workforce mates had managed and duly delivered.

The Mexican nonetheless felt he might have completed higher. “I’ve been improving, P2, but I should’ve been on pole and I did a mistake on the final corner,” mentioned Perez, a primary time winner with Racing Point (now Aston Martin) in Bahrain final yr. 

It was the first time Verstappen had been outqualified by a workforce mate in common situations since Australian Daniel Ricciardo was alongside at Red Bull in 2018.  “You can’t be good every time, so we’ll see what went wrong,” mentioned the Dutch driver. “It’s still P3, which is a good starting position.” 

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AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly certified fifth with Ricciardo sixth for McLaren and workforce mate Lando Norris seventh.

Norris would have been on the entrance row had his quickest lap not been deleted for exceeding observe limits.

Hamilton’s workforce mate Valtteri Bottas, on pole at Imola final November and quickest on Friday, certified a disappointing eighth — leaving Hamilton uncovered in Sunday’s race with the Red Bulls additionally on completely different tyre methods.

Hamilton will begin on medium tyres, with Perez on softs and Verstappen additionally on mediums.

“Anything can happen, we are on a different strategy to Lewis and Max,” mentioned Perez. “It is going to be interesting, see what we can do.”

Spaniard Carlos Sainz, in his first race in Italy with Ferrari, failed to make it by way of to the last shootout and begins eleventh. 

Both Williams drivers reached the second section for the first time since final July, with George Russell nonetheless sounding dissatisfied with twelfth regardless of being forward of former champions Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso.

Four-time champion Vettel will line up thirteenth for Aston Martin and Alonso, a winner at Imola with Renault in 2005 on his approach to the first of two titles, fifteenth for Alpine.

Japanese rookie Yuki Tsunoda was the large casualty of the first session, dropping management at the Variante Alta and smashing his AlphaTauri backwards into the tyre wall.

“For me that was a huge mistake and I feel really sorry for the team,” he mentioned, with the session red-flagged as the badly broken automobile was faraway from the observe.

Qualifying was introduced ahead by an hour as a mark of respect to guarantee there was no overlap with the funeral in Windsor of Britain’s Prince Philip, who died final week at the age of 99.

The groups, most of whom are primarily based in England, held a minute’s silence earlier than qualifying. 





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