Lewis Hamilton Earns his 98th career pole in Bahrain

Lewis Hamilton earned his 98th career pole on Saturday during qualifying for the Bahrain Grand Prix. The famed British F1 driver, who tied Michael Schumacher’s record seven F1 championship titles with his win at the Turkish GP, also set a new track record with a time of 1 minute, 27.264.

Hamilton was on point from start to finish during practise on Friday and qualifying on Saturday. The Bahrain Grand Prix is known for being a challenging race due to its extreme heat conditions. However, with some improvements to the setup, Hamilton made it look easy. Hamilton spoke to the media shortly after qualifying stating:

“We did some really good work overnight. I was really happy with the car from the get-go,” the veteran British driver said. “I just didn’t make any mistakes.”

Hamilton managed to finish just ahead of teammate Valtteri Bottas by .3 seconds and .4 ahead of Max Verstappen of Red Bull Racing. Bottas, who has had a solid year thought his time was closer to Lewis’s than it was with Bottas expressing his surprise in comments made after qualifying.

“I was quite surprised when I saw the gap. I definitely have the speed but I haven’t quite got it all together yet.”

However, Max Verstappen, who also has had a solid performance this season has accepted that the Red Bull car is slower than Mercedes. Verstappen spoke about his performance to the media, stating:

“You always want more but it’s important to stay realistic. I’m just pushing as hard as I can with the material I have. We’ll see what we can do tomorrow, it’s quite aggressive on the tires here.”

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Verstappen’s teammate Alexander Albon, who is Verstappen’s teammate and took fourth place, was a second behind Lewis Hamilton in qualifying. While Charles Leclerc took pole in Bahrain last year, this year he had to settle for 12th place and Vettel 13th after their Ferrari’s continued to underperform and struggled to find the speed needed to compete against the Mercedes.

Kimi Raikkonen, who is a former champion, found himself among the five drivers who were eliminated from Q1. During Q2, Carlos Sainz Jr. was eliminated after his car’s rear tires locked causing his to stall while still on the track. That resulted in qualifying having to be paused until safety officials could remove his car.

At one point during practising, Verstappen managed to beat the time Hamilton has set during qualifying by .26 seconds and .37 ahead of his teammate, Bottas. Hamilton, who will be attempting to win his 95th victory in F1 on Sunday had the fastest car in both practising and qualifying is sharing his concern over tires for next season.

Hamilton, like many other drivers, have said the new tires produced by Pirelli tires were found to be are heavy during testing. Speaking on the new tires expected for the 2021 season, Hamilton said,

Sebastian Vettel, a four time champion in F1, shared Hamilton’s hope that they retain the same tire used this season versus switching to the 2021 model from Pirelli.

“It will make the problems we struggle with now worse.”

Sebastian Vettel, a four time champion in F1, shared Hamilton’s hope that they retain the same tire used this season versus switching to the 2021 model from Pirelli.

“It will make the problems we struggle with now worse.”

Due to the tire offering less grip, Verstappen commented that the season could become more about drifting than racing if the tires are used as planned. Commenting, Verstappen said,

“I hope they listen a bit to the drivers. I hope we will not use them.”

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