Hamilton’s 10-place grid penalty for taking a new engine means he will start from 11th, while his Mercedes teammate, Valtteri Bottas, inherits pole from second place, with Hamilton’s title rival, Max Verstappen, completing the front row for Red Bull from third place in practice. Hamilton has a record 101 poles already under his belt and clocking up numbers clearly does not keep the world champion awake at night. “That was my best pole ever,” Hamilton joked when reminded that it would not count as such in the record books. Bottas’s role for Hamilton and Mercedes, a team that has dropped him for next season, is simple: keep Verstappen behind him. “It’s not going to be easy to fight my way through but where there is a will there’s a way,” he said. He had provisional pole but cruised for a lap before making a second run on the same tyres. Hamilton had dominated – now he has it all to do again on Sunday. The Mercedes team principal, Toto Wolff, said he had faith in Hamilton’s ability to fight from the back.

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