Newܫly-crowned seven-time Formula 1 world champion Lewis Hamilton claimed his 10th pole position of the 2020 season with a dominant display in qualifying at the Bahrain Grand Prix.

Hamilton showed no sign of slowing down after clinching a record-equalling seventh world title last time out in Turkey as he topped all three quജalifying sessions and was faster on each run on his way to taking a brilliant 98th pole of his career, edging out Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas by 0.289s.

The result ensured that Mercedes rec♈orded its 11th front-row lockout of the year having claimed every pole bar one from the 15 events that have taken place so far, but Red Bull’s Max Verstappen threatened to split the duo.

Verstappen 🐭was second-quickest prior to the final flying laps but Bottas found more time on his last effort to pip the Dutchman to second place and a spot on the front row alongside Hamilton.

Alex Albon was fourth-fastest as he looks to secureౠ his seat alongside Verstappen at Red Bull for 2021, although he was six-tenths slower than the best lap his teammate achieved.

A stunning last-gasp eff🅘ort from Sergio Perez saw the Racing Point driver sna𓃲tch fifth place in the closing stages of Q3 as he pipped the Renault pair of Daniel Ricciardo and Esteban Ocon.

Pierre Gasly was eighth-fastest ahead o༒f Lando Norris’ McLaren, while Daniil Kvyat rounded out the top 10 as AlphaTaur🔯i returned to form with both cars starting inside the top 10 following its disastrous display in Turkey.

Sebastian 𒁃Vettel outqualified Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc for just the fourth time this year for 11th, while Racing Point’s Lance Stroll was unable to follow up his pole position heroics in Turkey with the Canadian blaming a team miscommunication for his Q2 exi💟t on his way to finishing 13th.

George Russell progressed into the second part of qualifying for the 🔯ninth🍸 time in 2020 as he took 14th with a scruffy lap that ended up being nearly two seconds slower than his brilliant Q1 effort. Nevertheless, the Williams driver was able to continue his stunning qualifying head-to-head record against his F1 teammates.

There was disa൲ppointment for McLare💝n with Carlos Sainz set to start a lowly 15th after the Spaniard was sent into a red-flag inducing spin at Turn 1 on his very first lap in Q2.

Sainz reported his rear wheels had locked completely as he sat stranded on the track with what is suspected to be a brake-꧂by-wire related problem.

Antonio Giovinazzi was unable to make i📖t into the second segment of qualifying, although he did outpace Alfa Romeo teammate Kimi Raikkonen on Saturday for the seventh time thi🅷s season to take 16th place on the grid.

The Haas drivers were also line-a-stern as Kevin Magnussen won the US sﷺquad’s latest intra-team qual﷽ifying duel to shade Romain Grosjean for 18th.

For the sixth timಞe in his rookie F1 campaign, Nicholas Latifi found himself anchored to the bottom of thꦗe qualifying standings with a Q1 time that was nearly a full second slower than what Russell managed in the same session.