Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton has set a track record at the Bahrain Grand Prix on his way to a record-extending 98th career pole position.

The seven-time F1 champion looked in total control as he set a time of one minute, 27.264 seconds under the floodlights on Saturday.

“We did some really good work overnight. I was really happy with the car from the get-go,” the veteran British driver said. “I just didn’t make any mistakes.”

He finished about 0.3 seconds ahead of his Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas and about 0.4 clear of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen.

Bottas thought he was closer to Hamilton’s time.

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Verstappen, however, is resigned to being in Mercedes’ shadow.

“We’ll see what we can do tomorrow. It [the track] is quite aggressive on the tyres here.”

Verstappen’s teammate Alexander Albon was in fourth place and a full second behind Hamilton, who will bid for his record-extending 95th F1 win on Sunday.

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Australia’s Daniel Ricciardo had a solid qualifying, taking sixth place on the grid with a lap of 1:28.417, 1.153 seconds behind Hamilton.

This gives him a shot at repeating his effort at Imola, where he benefited from some late drama to share a podium with Hamilton at the Emilia Romagna grand prix.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc took the first of his seven pole positions last season in Bahrain, but this year the team has struggled badly and he starts from 12th place behind teammate Sebastian Vettel.

Former champion Kimi Raikkonen was among the five drivers eliminated from Q1 while Carlos Sainz Jr went out of Q2 after his rear tires blocked and his McLaren stalled on the track.

Qualifying was halted for a few minutes while his car was removed.

Earlier, Verstappen beat Hamilton’s leading time to go fastest in the final practice. The Dutchman was 0.26 ahead of Hamilton and 0.37 ahead of Bottas.

Hamilton was quickest in both practice runs on Friday and looked set to make it a hat trick when he overtook Verstappen and then Bottas with about 10 minutes left in the hour-long session. But Verstappen came back out and returned to the top of the leaderboard.

Albon’s car was fitted with a new chassis after he crashed heavily following a mistake on the last turn in the second practice.

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More complaints about new tyres for 2021

Hamilton and other drivers have been complaining about the new Pirelli tyres, which they are testing ahead of 2021, saying they are too heavy. Vettel says they are even worse than before.

“If that’s the best they can do [it’s] better we stick with this [current] tyre.”

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Four-time F1 champion Vettel agreed with Hamilton the 2020 tyre should kept next year, rather than switched to the unpopular 2021 model.

“It will make the problems we struggle with now worse,” he said.

Verstappen joked the championship could become “a drift challenge” if manufacturer Pirelli used the 2021 tyres, criticised for lacking grip, as planned.

This is the 15th of 17 races in the coronavirus-shortened season, with another race to follow in Bahrain next Sunday before the campaign concludes in Abu Dhabi.

AP/ABC



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