Hamilton holds Bottas in Portimao to sign his 97th pole position

Mercedes aims to become the first team in history to score all the 'poles' in the same season.

And

wants to reach 100 as soon as possible. Both goals seem within reach, given that the Briton added this Saturday the 97th of his account (1: 16,652) after a delicious head to head with

on the renewed asphalt of Portimao.

The Finn, a tenth slower, was closer than expected

, while

finished seventh.

Mercedes reversed the natural order in the choice of tires.

The first attempt of Q3 had left Bottas in front, with only 47 thousandths over Hamilton, although that was simply the advance.

His tight pulse was going to be resolved with the intermediate tires.

Lewis had an additional set.

And boy did he take advantage of it.

McLaren's strategy was to save the soft for the race.

That's why Carlos Sainz and

gave up the last bullet, satisfied with the seventh and eighth step on the grid.

Ferrari had bet on the same and

once again pulled another ace up his sleeve with an astonishing fourth place.

Half an hour late

The session started half an hour late, due to work on Turn 15 to repair a manhole cover.

, race director, had to supervise on site so as not to regret more blushes or more dangerous situations, such as the one

had suffered

in morning training when passing through that area.

Bottas's dominance in the previous three sessions heralded another Mercedes ride.

And it was under this trend that Q1 was developed, where the primary objective was to warm up the tires, even if it required one more lap to do so.

However, on this new route for everyone and plagued with changes in elevation, the surprises were reduced to a minimum.

Verstappen was saddened by his incident against

on Friday

, so he soon showed his character with a 1: 16.8, just five hundredths behind Hamilton.

In addition, Ferrari could afford a smile even with Vettel, whose last attempt lifted him to seventh place.

The rest of the squad settled down as usual, with

usual stroke of genius

.

Problems for Renault

In the second screen the trends were to consolidate.

Sainz and Norris, safe from any setback, continued rubbing shoulders with

, while the Renault were sweating more than expected.

To the elimination of

was added the accident of

, with many difficulties to grab the tenth place.

The Australian couldn't even get out of the garage in Q3.

Ahead, Hamilton and Bottas were left over with their first attempt on the intermediate tires, with Verstappen five tenths behind.

Ferrari wanted to join those luxuries of Mercedes, with disastrous consequences for Vettel, unable to push his car on yellow-band tires.

That last place, behind Russell, makes it clear that the four-time champion is only thinking about Aston Martin.

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Know more

• sports

• Formula 1

• Sebastian Vettel

• Sergio perez

• Valtteri Bottas

• Max verstappen

• Lewis hamilton

• Daniel Ricciardo

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