PORTIMAO, Portugal – Chalk up another pole for Lewis Hamilton’s record tally in the FIA Formula One World Championship.
Hamilton wheeled his Mercedes M11 to a lap of 1:16.652 around the 4.653-kilometer, 15-turn Algarve Int’l Circuit, edging out teammate Valtteri Bottas by a tenth of a second in the third and final knockout qualifying round ahead of Sunday’s Portuguese Grand Prix.
It’s the 97th F-1 pole of Hamilton’s standout career. He’ll go for his record-breaking 92nd career grand prix victory on Sunday.
“I can’t tell you how hard that was today – we’ve got a great car, but you have to drive the nuts off it to pull out a lap and Valtteri has just been so quick here this weekend! I’ve been digging and digging and trying to find that extra time,” said Hamilton. “They communicated well with us and gave us the option of what to do at the end – I chose to do three laps to give a chance at beating his time and he chose to do one. I thought that might give me an opportunity and it worked out, getting better and better on the final lap.”
This is Hamilton’s first time competing at the Portimao facility.
“This is a hardcore circuit, with places where you can’t see where you’re going because you’re just looking at the sky, so there are no references for braking points, for example,” Hamilton noted. “It’s among the most challenging circuits I’ve been to, especially with this new surface that makes it hard to get the tires switched on and working on both axles.
“It’s a big thank you to the team for the work this weekend, and to the fans who were able to come out today – it’s great to see their flags out there on track.”
Bottas will start alongside Hamilton in second after a lap of 1:16.754 in Q3.
“That was a strong session for me until the final run. Based on the feeling from Q2, we decided to go for the medium for the last run, then it was a question of one timed lap or three timed laps of fuel in the car,” Bottas explained. “It’s always a balance: with one lap, you carry less fuel weight but might have a challenge with the warm-up of the tyre; that’s what I went for as it had worked for me in Q2. It has been tricky to get clean laps this weekend and the final one for me was decent but not perfect – that’s the challenge of a track and a surface like this.
“It’s a little disappointing not to be on pole after topping the times most of the weekend, but I will be fighting for the win from P2 tomorrow.”
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was “best of the rest” in third, followed by Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Racing Point’s Sergio Perez.
The second Red Bull of Alex Albon, the McLaren duo of Â