The seven-time world champion took pole position for the inaugural race in Saudi Arabia after titܫle rival Max Verstappen crashed on his final lap of qualifying while t🏅rying to beat Hamilton’s time. 

Verstappen set the fastest first two sectors and appeared on course to snatch pole away from Hamilton until he locked💛 up at the final corner and tagged the outside wall, damaging his car.&nb𒅌sp;

The incident meant Hamilton’s lap time would go unbeaten, while teammate Valtteri Bottas improved to jump ahead of Verst🦂appen and secure a sweep of the front row for Mercedes. 

Hamilton was delighted with the result after Mercedes encountered struggl♚es on the softest tyres throughout qualifyi🌳ng. 

“We were quick through practice, but for some reason P3 and particularly quali⭕fying, just lacking pace,” Hamilton said. 

“We were struggling with the tyres, so, for us, to get a 1-2, Iꦛ'm really proud of Valtteri, and the guys, the men and women in our team who have just been working so hard. So yeah this is a great, great result.”

Hamilton 🔥conceded that Mercedes ultimately had no answer to Red Bull’s pace in qualifying. 

“We've worked so hard through simulation, through setup, and the collaboration ha🐲s been just epic with Valtteri,” he explained. “He is the best teammate there🥃's ever been in the sport for sure.

“And we've worked toget♔her to work on the set-up, getting the car to where it needs to be. Those guys were just so fast: that [Red] Bull around this track is just something else.

“But given🦋 where we are, I'm grateful for what we managed to pull out with what we have.”

And Hamilton is also wary of a Red Bull fightbac🍌k in the race, 𝔉despite demonstrating some strong run long pace on Friday. 

“We always get closerꦡ in race pace,” Hamilton added. “I think my long run was good yesterday but you know, they've [Red Bull] obviously picked something with the set-up and they're ra𝓀pid today.

“So I anticipate it will be a close battle all the wayܫ through tomorrow. But Valtteri and I will be on it.”