Lewis Hamilton resisted Max Verstappen and his rush for pole and will start from first place at the Qatar Grand Prix. With the World Cup in a handkerchief and on a circuit where overtaking is difficult, the Briton took a giant step to keep his aspirations intact. Fernando Alonso will start in fifth place after a classification to frame where he was until third at the end of Q2.
The Mercedes regained the dominance of yesteryear – we will see if with irregularities as happened in Brazil – beating a Red Bull team that could not get Sergio Pérez in Q3. Verstappen saved the furniture for his team by getting a place in the front row, although he will have to be careful with a Bottas who will start third tomorrow and will try to help Hamilton.
Fernando Alonso made a very complete qualification taking all the possible juice out of his Alpine and beware that he could be facing his first great opportunity of the season to make a podium. Keep in mind that he leaves through the clean zone and that he will be in a position to sneak into the front zone if there is a war between Red Bull and Mercedes.
The Asturian will crouch his opportunity as will a Carlos Sainz who will start the race seventh. The Madrilenian will seek to follow in the wake of a Fernando Alonso who lived his most round classification. Ferrari is in the middle of a fight with McLaren for third place in the Constructors’ World Championship and they will look at this race in the rear-view mirror. A great race awaits us in Qatar that could see Alonso return to a Formula 1 podium for the first time since 2014 following the Alpine’s great performance.
