Azerbaijan GP Qualifying: Vettel BEATS Hamilton to Pole

Sebastian Vettel has taken pole position for Ferrari in the 2018 Azerbaijan Grand Prix, beating Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes in to second place on the grid. Bottas starts in third.

Lewis Hamilton hasn’t won a race yet this year for Mercedes, and he’s struggling to make pole starts too. And the 2018 Azerbaijan Grand Prix is no different, with Sebastian Vettel putting his Ferrari firmly in pole position for tomorrow’s Grand Prix and relegating Hamilton to a second place start.

In truth it should probably have been a Ferrari front row with Raikkonen on pole, but the Finn overcooked a a stunning qualifying lap close to the end and undid the works of two fastest sectors by screwing up turn 15 and losing so much time he’ll start the race in sixth place.

Bottas will start in third place for Mercedes with the Red Bulls of Daniel Ricciardo and Max Verstappen behind, and following Raikkonen’s sixth place start it’s Ocon and Perez in the Force Indias and Hulkenburg and Sainz in the Renaults. McLaren didn’t have a great time of it, and Alonso will start in 13th and Vandoorne in 16th.

But Mercedes has a decent chance of hunting Vettel down in the race – especially with Raikkonen starting in sixth place – although Raikkonen’s starting on Ultrasoft tyres which may make for an interesting outing.