MERCEDES AMG DOMINANT, LEWIS ON POLE

Lewis Hamilton has set the fastest time in qualifying session at Losail circuit and will start from the front row of the inaugural Qatar Grand Prix. The Briton recorded the fourth Pole this season, 102nd in his career.

Max Verstappen has the second fastest time, tomorrow he and his main rival for champion title will start the race from the first row. Bottas and Gasly starts from the second, and Alonso/Noriss from the third.

Qualifying is the key session this weekend in Qatar. The initial analysis is that it will be difficult to ovartake in the race, so the final outcome will be decided by the grid position, the first corner and the strategy.

In the Q1 session, only AlphaTauri driver Pierre Gаsly decided to go on yellow tires, while the other drivers preffered the red ones.

It passed without any major surprise, after the first fast laps Verstappen had the fastest time, two hundredths ahead of Hamilton.

In the last seconds fast laps, Hamilton returned to the top for only 6 thousandths ahead of Dutch. Raikkonen, Latifi, Giovinacci, Schumacher and Mazepin dropped out of the fight.

In the Q2 session, everyone except Russell, Tsunoda and Gasly came out on the yellow tires for the first attempt to start with this set tomorrow. Lewis Hamilton was the fastest, but Pierre Gasly was second with the help of the softer and thus faster red tyres of Pirelli.

In the second attempts only Bottas and Sainz Jr. got on the yellow tires again, while those who secured a place in the top ten did not finish the lap. Hamilton's time remained the best.

Sergio Perez, Lance Stroll, Charles Leclerc, Daniel Ricciardo and George Russell did not make it into the Top 10. Probably not only such a thing was expected from the Red Bull driver.

In the final session, the battle took place on the red tires. In the first attempt, Hamilton was at the top of the table, 16 hundredths ahead of Ferstappen. Botas was third, just 0.2 seconds behind.

In the second attempt, which Hamilton started a little earlier than everyone else, and Verstappen last, Lewis drove even faster, and then yellow flags appeared, due to a flat tire on Pierre Gasly's car.

Replay showed the Frenchman driving over high curbs, damaging the car and earning a flat tire.

With that, the qualifying was over, and all the drivers had to slow down, some more, some less.

QATAR GRAND PRIX - QUALIFYING
P.	DRIVER	TEAM	TIME	GAP
1.	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG	1:20.827
2.	Max Verstappen	Red Bull	1:21.282	+ 0.455
3.	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes AMG	1:21.478	+ 0.651
4.	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri	1:21.640	+ 0.815
5.	Fernando Alonso	Alpine	1:21.670	+ 0.843
6.	Lando Norris	McLaren	1:21.731	+ 0.904
7.	Carlos Sainz Jr.	Ferrari	1:21.840	+ 1.015
8.	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri	1:21.881	+ 1.054
9.	Esteban Ocon	Alpine	1:22.028	+ 1.201
10.	Sebastian Vettel	Aston Martin	1:22.785	+ 1.958
Q2 Fastest Time: Lewis Hamilton - 1:21.682
11.	Sergio Pérez	Red Bull	1:22.346	+ 0.664
12.	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin	1:22.460	+ 0.778
13.	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1:22.463	+ 0.781
14.	Daniel Ricciardo	McLaren	1:22.597	+ 0.915
15.	George Russell	Williams	1:22.756	+ 1.074
Q1 Fastest Time: Lewis Hamilton - 1:21.901
16.	Kimi Räikkönen	Alfa Romeo	1:23.156	+ 1.255
17.	Nicholas Latifi	Williams	1:23.215	+ 1.312
18.	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo	1:23.262	+ 1.361
19.	Mick Schumacher	Haas	1:23.407	+ 1.506
20.	Nikita Mazepin	Haas	1:25.859	+ 3.958
107% time: 1:27.634
HYBRID HISTORY - LOSAIL 2021 Lewis Hamilton - Mercedes AMG - 1:20.827 @МкФормула1 - Република Македонија @MkFormula1 - Republic of Macedonia