Hamilton leaves Verstappen unanswered with looser pole of the year

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• Red Bull vs Mercedes The keys to a club duel

• World Cup 2021 The pulse between Verstappen and Hamilton

The

in Qatar, a new circuit where overtaking F1 are worth their weight in gold, was too important to

and

dejasen nothing in reserve. Much was expected of their duel under the full moon in Losail, but the British did not give the World Cup leader a choice, who he led by 45 hundredths. A margin so wide that even

wanted to apologize on the radio to his engineers, while Hamilton showed a wide smile in front of the cameras. On Saturday he also left reasons for satisfaction to

and

, who will start fifth and seventh on the grid.

After so much debate over the legality of its aerodynamics and engine power, Mercedes dealt another blow in Qatar. Hamilton, in a threatening tone, was the first to leave the pits in his two attempts in Q3 and in both he swept everything in his path. The first lap, despite a slight initial skid, seemed already enough (1: 21.262), although he was still able to polish it by almost four tenths for the final 1: 20.827. Verstappen, by contrast, never felt comfortable riding Losail's dizzying curves.

After getting the biggest margin for a pole in the 20 races of the 2021 World Cup,

, head of the Silver Arrows, admitted that Hamilton had not even needed the new engine with which he already flew in Interlagos.

True or not, the truth is that Red Bull sees how its 14 points of advantage begin to seem insufficient.

In the event of an uneventful first lap, Hamilton appears to have no rival at Losail.

And

, third on the grid, also poses a threat to Verstappen.

Risk option in Q2

A few meters behind, Alonso and Sainz are outlined with great options for the points.

The fifth place for the Asturian, with which he equals his best Saturday of the course, leaves the Alpine team with great flavor, which was also able to sneak

in Q3.

Sainz, for his part, completely beat

,

out in the second round.

That Q2 had several discordant notes, including the early eliminations of

, or

.

It is difficult to find any explanation for the poor level of the Mexican, unable to keep up with

or

, also powered by a Honda engine.

Nor could the Ferrari driver find reasons, too far from Sainz's time, who had taken a heavy risk by repeating on medium tires on his second attempt.

Gasly's prick

"I almost had a heart attack", revealed, with relief, the Madrilenian when he was among the definitive Top-10. No one except the Mercedes and Verstappen had booked an extra set of softs for Q3. While Alonso managed to push himself to third place (1: 21.894), Sainz could only survive by a slim margin. When he seemed best oriented towards positions of honor, Carlos had to give ground to

. And it could be even worse, given Gasly's last puncture, which led to the usual confusion of yellow flags.

It was a Saturday without other incidents, where no one wanted to reserve anything since Q1, when Bottas, Verstappen and Hamilton alternated in the lead, without Perez ever getting close to his records.

The margins never widened beyond two tenths and only the Red Bulls kept the strength to save a second effort.

After that second attempt, Sainz and Alonso climbed to fourth and sixth position.

Only Gasly had wanted to dare to mount medium tires, with which he also rode at an excellent level.

Leclerc, for his part, was only able to avoid the disaster in the last attempt thanks to a very fast third sector.

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Know more

• sports

• Formula 1

• Lewis hamilton

• Max verstappen

• Carlos Sainz Jr

• Fernando Alonso

• Mercedes gp

• Valtteri Bottas

• Sergio perez

• Daniel Ricciardo

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