Turkish Grand Prix: Lewis Hamilton qualifies fastest but engine penalty puts Valtteri Bottas on pole

Lewis Hamilton qualified fastest for Sunday’s Turkish Grand Prix but it will be Mercedes teammate Valteri Bottas on pole due to his ten-place grid penalty.

Hamilton had been fastest in both Friday practice sessions and was in command again but will start tomorrow’s race from 11th after Mercedes opted to take a fourth engine of the season - one more than permitted.

The Brit’s world title rival Max Verstappen qualified third fastest in his Red Bull so will be promoted to second and join Bottas on the front row of the grid.

“The session was tricky, but it was a great job by the team,” said Hamilton.

“Tomorrow is going to be difficult but I will give it everything.

“It is not the easiest to overtake and I imagine tomorrow is going to be difficult to move up. We have got the long straight down the back and we will see what we can do.”

Bottas added: “It was a good qualifying and not easy conditions. As a team result it was as we planned.

“I will focus on my own race tomorrow and that is the way to attack it when you start on pole.”

A queue formed at the start of Q1 with the threat of rain imminent. A smattering of drops at the end of the circuit lasted only for a few minutes, having little impact on the result.

Daniel Ricciardo was the biggest casualty. The Australian ended McLaren’s nine-year wait for a victory at last month’s Italian Grand Prix with a composed drive.

But Ricciardo has largely been out-of-sorts in his debut campaign with McLaren and his early exit exemplifies his struggles.

Mick Schumacher delivered the best lap of his F1 career to progress to Q2 for only the second time.

The young German finished Q1 ahead of four-time world champion Sebastian Vettel and the best part of three seconds faster than Haas team-mate Nikita Mazepin. He will start 14th on Sunday.

Vettel secured his second world championship on this day a decade ago, but the 34-year-old was out-qualified by Aston Martin team-mate Lance Stroll and failed to progress to the top-10-shootout, finishing 11th.

Additional reporting by PA.

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