The two drivers were quite closely matched throughout qualifying, and surprisingly it was Valtteri Bottas who took first blood in Q3 with a quicker
lap than his teammate on their first run.
Not exact matches
Sure, he benefited from the
lap one safety car and lack of fight from most of the midfield, but in the end he was only five and a half seconds away from the winner and less
than three seconds behind his
teammate - which must be a little bit embarrassing for Valtteri...
But to more
than balance the pole vault, there was Jim Beatty, the tiny distance runner from the Santa Clara Youth Village, who won the mile in 3:58.8, although he was handicapped in his bid to regain his American mile record when his
teammate and pace setter, Laszlo Tabori, was forced out after the second
lap by a week - old hip injury.
Hamilton's qualifying
lap in Montreal was pretty special - he was four tenths quicker
than Sebastian Vettel's Ferrari and a whopping seven tenths up on
teammate Valtteri Bottas.
Mansell registered a
lap time that was two seconds quicker
than his
teammate Ricardo Patrese, who in turn was a second quicker
than Ayrton Senna in the McLaren.
His
teammate Jody Scheckter may have won the title that year, but it was Gilles who elevated himself to a god - like status that season by doing things like
lapping 11 seconds faster
than anyone else at a wet Watkins Glen and banging wheels with René Arnoux for
lap after
lap at Dijon.
It's also worth noting that Valtteri Bottas has never been out qualified by a
teammate in Bahrain, and he has finished both practice sessions so far with a quicker
lap than Hamilton.
His best
lap was almost six tenths slower
than his
teammates, showing just what a sensational effort Vettel put in.