Hamilton takes pole for Azerbaijan GP in Mercedes 1-2

The British driver’s 66th pole moves him one ahead of F1 great Ayrton Senna and just two behind Michael Schumacher’s all-time record of 68.

Top two qualifiers and team-mates Lewis Hamilton of Great Britain and Valtteri Bottas of Finland embrace in parc ferme after the qualifying session on Saturday.

 

Lewis Hamilton took a brilliant pole position for the Azerbaijan Grand Prix ahead of Valtteri Bottas on Saturday, with Mercedes securing a convincing 1-2 as rival Ferrari lagged behind.

Bottas led qualifying and then set an even quicker time on his final lap only for Hamilton to beat him by nearly half a second.

The British driver’s 66th pole moves him one ahead of F1 great Ayrton Senna and just two behind Michael Schumacher’s all-time record of 68.

Raikkonen qualified third ahead of his Ferrari team-mate Sebastian Vettel, the championship leader.

After three difficult practice sessions, qualifying also proved tough.

With three minutes remaining a red flag came up, halting the session, after Daniel Ricciardo clipped the wall with the left side of his Red Bull coming out of Turn 6 prompting an expletive from the Australian driver.