Tuscan GP Qualifying: Lewis Hamilton Claims Inaugural Pole in Mercedes' In One-Two Lead Over Red Bull Duo

Lewis Hamilton kept his pole streak rolling with the first at the inaugural Tuscan GP as Mercedes lead a one-two finish with the Red Bull duo following behind them. 

Having claimed the pole in 0.059sec earlier than his teammate Valtteri Bottas, Hamilton extended his pole streak to seventh in nine races and Ferrari's Charles Leclerc delivered his best performance of the season finishing fifth fastest behind the Red Bull team. Sebastian Vettel finished far off behind the top 10 and will start in P14 on Sunday. 

Bottas claimed the pole at the practice session and maintained the race lead until Q1 of the qualifying session before Hamilton fought him off the top in Q2 and went on for the final fight against the Finn driver and Max to lead the final in P1. 

The Finn driver suffered time lost for having to slow down for a yellow flag in Q3 when Renault's Esteban Ocon lost control and spun. At this time, Hamilton was already ahead. Bottas could not recover the time lag costing him the chance to challenge Hamilton for the pole. 

Hamilton later admitted his teammate was faster than he could but he emerged as the winner because he had done background work on improving on his pace knowing that it's a challenging circuit and that paid off for him in the final. 

"Valtteri was quicker than me all day yesterday and this morning and even in Q1," Hamilton explained. "I have been working really hard in the background to improve on my lines and set-up and I finally got the lap I needed."

Racing Point out-going driver Sergio Perez trailed teammate Lando Stroll as the team finished sixth and seventh respectively and following them in the eighth position was Renault driver Daniel Ricciardo. 

Hamilton will be racing for his 90th race win at the final on Sunday as comes closer to eclipsing the previous record set for the all-time biggest race win by Michael Schumacher (91).