IMOLA • Lewis Hamilton put Mercedes on pole position for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix yesterday, with Red Bull's Sergio Perez joining the seven-time Formula One world champion on the front row.
Red Bull's Max Verstappen qualified third, ending his bid for three successive poles, with Ferrari's Charles Leclerc fourth on what is a home track for the Italian team.
The pole was a record-extending 99th of Hamilton's career, but it was one the Briton had to work for against resurgent rivals, with Perez only 0.035sec slower.
"I definitely didn't expect us to be ahead of two Red Bulls," said the 36-year-old Briton, who won the season-opener in Bahrain last month after Verstappen started on pole.
"I think they have been so quick this weekend, there were times when they were six-tenths ahead.
"I came around the last corner, and heard I'd got the pole and I was super grateful."
He produced the pole time of 1min 14.411sec with his first flying lap of the final session.
Perez, who will be making his first front-row start today, was signed from Racing Point in December to put more pressure on Mercedes than Verstappen's previous teammates had managed, and he delivered in only his second race for Red Bull.
The Mexican still felt he could have done better, though.
"I've been improving, P2, but I should've been on pole and I did a mistake on the final corner," said Perez, a first-time winner with Racing Point, now known as Aston Martin, in Bahrain last year.
This was the first time Verstappen had been out-qualified by a teammate in regular conditions since Australian Daniel Ricciardo was his partner at Red Bull in 2018, but he was still happy with his finish.
"You can't be good every time, so we'll see what went wrong," said the Dutchman. "It's still P3, which is a good starting position."
AlphaTauri's Pierre Gasly qualified fifth with Ricciardo sixth for McLaren and teammate Lando Norris seventh. Norris would have been on the front row had his fastest lap not been deleted for exceeding track limits.
Hamilton's Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas will start from eighth.
Spaniard Carlos Sainz, in his first race in Italy with Ferrari, failed to make it to the final shoot-out and will start in 11th.
Both Williams drivers reached the second phase for the first time since last July, although George Russell was disappointed with 12th despite being ahead of former world champions Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso.
Four-time champion Vettel will line up 13th for Aston Martin and Alonso, a winner at Imola with Renault in 2005 on his way to the first of two titles, 15th for Alpine.
Japanese rookie Yuki Tsunoda was the big casualty of the first session, losing control and smashing his AlphaTauri backwards into the tyre wall.
"For me, that was a huge mistake and I feel really sorry for the team," he said.
REUTERS
F1 EMILIA ROMAGNA GRAND PRIX
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