Lewis Hamilton hits a century with his 100th qualifying pole
As was rightly said by David Croft, "Lewis has a ton of poles."
From Canada in 2007 to Spain in 2021, Lewis Hamilton took 14 years to achieve a feat no driver had ever managed in Formula 1 history. But, as they say, to make history you must know the history as well. And know he did! Equaling Senna’s 65 poles in Canada in 2017 and then equaling Michael Schumacher’s 68 poles in the same year, Lewis had shown no signs of slowing down or retiring.
He began stretching his lead of having the most poles and it is finally on to the magic number that no F1 driver has yet achieved and any future driver will probably find it an absolute pain to equal. Anyway, here’s an update of the 2021 Spanish GP qualifying.
Hamilton’s blistering 1m 16.741s on his first lap in Q3 had already started looking like his 100th pole. Verstappen wasn’t far behind though. But, neither of the Mercedes drivers nor Verstappen could increase on their previous times in their final lap of Q3 giving the pole to Lewis.
Moreover, even Perez did not perform to any good standards at all by spinning in his first outing of Q3 putting pressure on his final Q3 lap. He is now a disappointing P8 on tomorrow’s grid. I think this race will be very crucial in deciding Checo’s future w.r.t. him being considered as a top level driver from a top team.
It wasn’t all bad for Verstappen, however, who after showing strong pace in Q2 to lead the segment, claimed his first ever front row start at the Circuit de Barcelona-Catalunya, ahead of Bottas. Alpine’s Esteban Ocon continued the team’s form from Portimao with a stunning quali-drive to P5. Home hero Carlos Sainz Jr. finished sixth in the second Ferrari, ahead of McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo, who had just one lap in Q3 but managed to get ahead of his ninth placed team mate Lando Norris who, by the way, had led all the way in Q1. Both Ricciardo and Sainz Jr. had been leading their teammates for a qualifying finish up until today’s session.
