Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/530451
56 Sport maltatoday, SUNDAY, 21 JUNE 2015 FORMULA 1 Lewis Hamilton heads a Mercedes one-two in qualifying at the Austrian Grand Prix despite both cars going off on their final laps of the session Lewis Hamilton takes pole at Austrian Grand Prix REIGNING F1 champion Lewis Hamilton's strutting domina- tion of the 2015 season contin- ued when he won his seventh pole position in eight attempts, despite spinning off the track. The two-times world champi- on has failed to win three of the seven races to date but another victory was thrown away in Monaco, where he bestrode the weekend only to be denied at the end by his team's poor decision- making. The Mercedes driver will start Sunday's Austrian Grand Prix ahead of his relentless and soli- tary rival, his team-mate Nico Rosberg. Hamilton is now also level with Sebastian Vettel on 45 pole wins and they are joint third in the all-time list, be- hind Michael Schumacher (68) and Ayrton Senna (65). Records could topple like dominoes in the y ears ahead, given a fair wind. Another fastest time for Ham- ilton means Mercedes have not been knocked off pole posi- tion since this race a year ago, when Williams locked out the front row. But this was not the most straightforward of qualif y- ing sessions for Hamilton. The serenity of the Red Bull Ring's setting disguised the fact that t Nexthe drivers had to work hard in challenging conditions after rain had swept in from the cloud-shrouded Styrian moun- tains. Qualif ying got under way on a damp track and matters only improved towards the end. Even then Hamilton spun off in his fi- nal effort in Q3 and might have lost pole to Rosberg. But the German, who was on a f lyer, re- peated Hamilton's error just be- fore the end of his last lap. Hamilton had some difficulty in getting out of Q1, finishing 13th after going off at Turn 2 and abandoning a lap. "It was quite difficult qualif ying with the track conditions," he said. "I was grateful I got my third lap in on the first run in Q3. I was push- ing that bit extra on the next run and just locked the rears. "I wasn't too concerned about losing pole at that time because I was trying to get the car going, but afterwards I was thinking: 'I probably lost it there.' "I just didn't have the confi- dence in the balance I had early on, and the temperatures of the tyres and the brakes." Hamilton added: "Ferrari have really showed some great pace so tomorrow's going to be a tough race. Every little bit of time will count tomorrow." Asked about drawing level with Vettel on total poles, he said: "I'm very fortunate that I've had a great car for the last two years and been able to get poles and raise my total. I'd much rather have Sebastian's world champi- onships [four] than his pole po- sitions, so I'm working towards that." Rosberg said: "I'm definitely gutted, but Lewis was 0.2secs up on the previous lap and I was 0.2secs exactly up at that point so I knew I had to go for it. I'm not sure what happened. I went on the AstroTurf out of the sec- ond to last corner and maybe that was still a bit wet or some- thing. I just overdid it after that. I'm not sure. I just lost it there, into the last corner." Vettel, whose Ferrari will be third on the grid, said: "I thought we could probably have a bit of a word today but unfortunately they were a bit too quick. We tried everything. Q1 was a bit tricky for all of us but I think we settled into the groove nicely." Behind the Mercedes pair and Vettel will be the 2014 pole sit- ter Felipe Massa (Williams), Nico Hülkenberg (Force India) and Valtteri Bottas (Williams). The shock casualty in Q1 was Ferrari 's Kimi Raikkonen, who was 17th. "How the fuck is that possible?" was the radio message broadcast from the world cham- pion of 2007. The four other drivers who did not make it to Q2 were the Manor pair, Will Stevens and Roberto Merhi, plus Jenson Button and Sergio Pérez. In Q2 McLaren, predictably, lost their second representative, Fernando Alonso, for whom disappointments keep coming thick and fast. It was the seventh time in seven race weekends – he missed Australia recovering from a head injury – this season that the Spaniard had failed to make it to Q3, the same number that covered his five-year Ferrari career. This is the double world cham- pion's worst season since 2001, his first year in Formula One. The Spaniard and Button will start at the back of the grid af- ter being hit with a 25-place grid penalty for having new compo- nents fitted to their cars. The others to go out were Daniel Ricciardo – whose poor weekend at Red Bull 's home grand prix was compounded as he could only go 14th, with a 10-place grid penalty also to be applied – Carlos Sainz Jr (Toro Rosso), Marcus Ericsson (Sau- ber) and Pastor Maldonado (Lo- tus).