Yet another race, yet another pole position for the magnificent Lewis Hamilton. Despite winning the title last race weekend, he is showing no signs of backing off or complacency at all.
Hamilton’s laps in Q3 were solid enough, with no hint of errors at the turns. His precision techniques with the braking and at the throttle meant that he went quickest among them all, with a lap time of 1:27.264.
Compared to his previous lap in the same session, Hamilton was slightly slower in the first sector. The Briton was then asked whether it was a conscious decision regarding his tire management.
Lewis Hamilton revealed that he made no mistakes on his final Q3 lap
Speaking in the post-race press conference, Hamilton stated, “Well, I guess I can’t really answer that too well because it’s giving away trade secrets. I can tell you that I didn’t make any mistakes.”
The eventual difference in timings of both of Hamilton’s laps came down to almost four-tenths of a second. His domination in the second and final sectors meant that he had the edge over teammate Bottas, who believed he put in a clean and fast lap of his own.
The Mercedes driver further elaborated and said, “Look, we do these really slow out laps and each time we’re trying to have the tyres in the optimal window for the start and each time we go out, they can vary between one and five degrees so most of often the result of that discrepancy is tyre temp and they generally get better to a point in the lap and then they start going over temp and then you start struggling with the tyre a little bit more and so that’s some of the answer.”
Will Hamilton be able to win the race with Bottas and Verstappen behind him?
The stats, going into the race at the Bahrain International Circuit, might not really encourage Hamilton. Of the last 15 races that have taken place at the venue, only 6 of them have been won by pole sitters.
With teammate Bottas and Max Verstappen ready to capitalize on any mistakes, Hamilton needs to ensure a clean start to his opening lap. Nevertheless, it will be fascinating to watch these top drivers battle it out from the get-go. As it stands, Hamilton holds the aces with his starting spot.
