Lewis Hamilton maintained the momentum from last week’s stunning win in Brazil to claim pole for the inaugural Qatar Grand Prix after a “really sweet” qualifying lap on Saturday.
Max Verstappen, who leads his Mercedes rival by 14 points with three races to go, will start alongside Hamilton on the front row on Sunday.
But the gap will give all at Red Bull a restless night - almost half a second, a clear sign Hamilton’s new engine fitted last weekend has injected fresh life into his quest for an unprecedented eighth world title.
His flying lap time of 1min 20.827 that clinched Qatar’s first ever pole position proved way beyond Verstappen, who was 0.455sec slower.