Not a stroll but Lance thrives on 'ice-rink' track

ISTANBUL • Lance Stroll was at a loss for words after he upstaged Formula One's title-chasing Lewis Hamilton yesterday when he grabbed his first career pole position at the Turkish Grand Prix.

The 22-year-old Canadian made the most of drying conditions on a treacherous track to end Mercedes' 13-race domination of qualifying this year.

He delivered a dazzling fastest lap for Racing Point in 1min 47.765sec in the closing seconds to usurp his teammate Sergio Perez and then resist a last surge from Red Bull's Max Verstappen.

The Dutchman was second, three-tenths behind Stroll, but ahead of Mexican Perez, who claimed his career-best starting position after finishing fourth nine times before.

"I can't really put it into words. I'm shocked. I didn't expect to be up here after FP3," said Stroll after a qualifying session interrupted by two red flags.

He said he owed his success to feeling at home on the ice rink-like slippery and treacherous conditions, as heavy rain interrupted proceedings and rendered the track unsafe for 45 minutes.

"I love it and I have always enjoyed it," he said. "At home, I grew up driving on ice in our parking lot with lots of drifting and sliding around without much grip. It's in my bones, I guess.

"In these conditions, you don't really have time to think about what's going on around you. It's really just about the next corner."

He is the first Canadian to take pole since Jacques Villeneuve at the 1997 European Grand Prix at Jerez. It is the Silverstone-based Racing Point team's first pole since, racing as Jordan, they did so at the 2009 Belgian Grand Prix.

Stroll's surprise qualifying performance comes after a tough few weeks when he had to miss the Eifel Grand Prix, testing positive for coronavirus the next day.

The outcome left Mercedes well-beaten on the weekend when Hamilton bids to seal a record-equalling seventh drivers' championship and draw level with Michael Schumacher.

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Hamilton wound up sixth behind Alex Albon in the second Red Bull and Renault's Daniel Ricciardo, whose teammate Esteban Ocon qualified seventh. Kimi Raikkonen and his Alfa Romeo teammate Antonio Giovinazzi were eighth and 10th, with Valtteri Bottas ninth for Mercedes.

Mercedes' consecutive run of poles this year, before Racing Point's Lance Stroll broke the streak yesterday with his career first start from P1.

"We did the best we could and that was as fast as we could go," Hamilton said. "The track feels terrible, it's just like driving on ice but for whatever reason, some people can get the tyres switched on better than us."

1 Lance Stroll (Can) Racing Point

2 Max Verstappen (Ned) Red Bull

3 Sergio Perez (Mex) Racing Point

4 Alex Albon (Tha) Red Bull

5 Daniel Ricciardo (Aus) Renault

6 Lewis Hamilton (Gbr) Mercedes

7 Esteban Ocon (Fra) Renault

8 Kimi Raikkonen (Fin) Alfa Romeo

9 Valtteri Bottas (Fin) Mercedes

10 Antonio Giovinazzi (Ita) Alfa Romeo

11 Lando Norris (Gbr) McLaren

12 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Ferrari

This is the first time this year neither Hamilton (nine) nor Bottas (four) have topped qualifying.

Verstappen expressed his disappointment, adding: "In Q1 we tried to go out on the inters (intermediates). It was faster in Q3, but for us the inters were horrible. The extreme tyres were good for us.

"At the moment I'm just a bit disappointed, I just hope we have a good race tomorrow."

Hamilton can seal his seventh drivers' world title today if he prevents Bottas from outscoring him by eight points.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE