Lewis Hamilton claimed his 99th career pole position in qualifying Saturday for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix, with Red Bull’s Sergio Perez starting alongside the seven-time world champion’s Mercedes at Imola.

Max Verstappen, runner-up to Hamilton at the season-opening race in Bahrain last month, will begin third on the grid in the other Red Bull as the top three were separated by less than one-tenth of a second.

“The day’s been great obviously,” said Hamilton. “I definitely didn’t expect us to be ahead of the two Red Bulls. They’ve been so quick this weekend.

Continue reading this article on SportsDesk, the sports website of The Times of Malta

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