QUALIFYING REPORT
L
ewis Hamilton delivered another mega-
lap to claim his 66th pole position,
topping the timing screens at the end
of qualifying for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix,
and with it the Briton overtook Ayrton Senna’s
milestone of 65 pole position starts and is now
only two short of bettering the all-time record
held by Michael Schumacher.
Like in Canada, Hamilton kept his best for
last, digging deep under the long shadows of
the Baku City Circuit, to depose his Mercedes
teammate Valtteri Bottas who will start the
grand prix in second.
In the end it all came down to a single
flying lap at the very end of Q3. With 3.33
minutes remaining in the session – just as
everyone was ready for a final banzai lap –
Daniel Ricciardo tagged the wall exiting Turn
6 with the left rear of his Red Bull, which
stopped in the middle of the track, prompting
a red flag period as the marshals cleared the
car.
At that point, the smart money would have
been on Bottas taking pole as he topped the
timing screens, with Hamilton second.
Reason being that it was taking two laps
to heat up the Pirelli red band tyres and get
them working in an optimum window. Three
and a half minutes would only allow for one
flyer in the final moments.
It would take something very special to
unseat Bottas from pole, and indeed it came
in the form of another jaw dropping Hamilton
lap, which was almost half a second better
than his teammate’s best and over a second
up on the Ferrari of Kimi Raikkonen who was
third quickest.