Lewis Hamilton claimed Mercedes’ 100th Formula 1 pole position in a rain disrupted qualifying while a weigh bridge incident for Sebastian Vettel has put the Ferrari under investigation.
Hamilton was the fastest after the first round of laps in the final qualifying session with Vettel just under a tenth of a second slower. He found improvements on the drying track, lowering the benchmark to 1m07.281s. Vettel, who was fastest in the first sector on the final lap, couldn’t improve and had to settle for second quickest as the chequered flag fell, but his final starting position is still not certain.
Vettel was called to the weighbridge at the start of the second qualifying session. With rain set for the second half of the session, he was keen to get the mandatory weighing finished as soon as possible to put a lap in on the drying track. He kept his engine running and drove off the bridge once finished, which FIA officials said “destroyed” the scale.
He is currently under investigation and will see the stewards.
Hamilton could also face a penalty before the start of the Brazilian Grand Prix. The Mercedes driver ran into trouble twice in the second qualifying session. The first came when he appeared to swerve into the path of Sergey Sirotkin, who was readying to start a qualifying run. Sirotkin had to run wide to avoid a collision, and ultimately was knocked out of qualifying at the end of Q2.
The second came when he failed to move out of the way of Kimi Raikkonen, saying he didn’t know which way the Ferrari was trying to go around him.
Currently neither are under investigation, but neither an investigation hasn’t been ruled out.
Valtteri Bottas, who topped Q2, took third quickest, ahead of Kimi Raikkonen, Max Verstappen, and Daniel Ricciardo, who takes a five place grid penalty.
Rain did come in the second half of the session and lap times dropped off for most of the field. Most drivers weren’t able to improve but Charles Leclerc, who was 11th when the rain started to fall, stayed on in the worsening conditions. Remarkably, the Sauber driver managed to improve, jumping up to eighth and knocking Kevin Magnussen into the bottom five.
But it was the other Sauber who picked up the “best of the rest” position. Marcus Ericsson outqualified Leclerc, with the pair finishing seventh and eighth.
Romain Grosjean and Pierre Gasly completed the top 10.
Magnussen took 11th, ahead of Sergio Perez and Esteban Ocon, who also has a grid penalty due to a gearbox change.
Nico Hulkenberg took 14th, ahead of Sirotkin, Carlos Sainz, Brendon Hartley, and Fernando Alonso.
Lance Stroll and Stoffel Vandoorne completed the order.
