Motor racing: Stroll takes shock Turkish GP pole, Hamilton sixth

  • 11/14/2020
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ISTANBUL (Reuters) - Canadian Lance Stroll seized an astonishing first Formula One pole position on Saturday in a crazy weather-hit Turkish Grand Prix qualifying that snapped a 14-race streak for dominant Mercedes.While the 22-year-old Racing Point driver celebrated wildly over the team radio, six-times world champion Lewis Hamilton qualified only sixth for a race likely to crown him world champion for a record-equalling seventh time. Mercedes team mate and sole title rival Valtteri Bottas will line up ninth. Mercedes, whose pole run extended back to the 2019 season-ender in Abu Dhabi, never looked in contention on a track returning for the first time since 2011 but made slippery by rain and newly-laid asphalt. Stroll, whose billionaire father Lawrence owns the Silverstone-based team, stepped up when it mattered as Racing Point timed the switch from wet to intermediate tyres to perfection. The Canadian, who has come back from missing a race and testing positive for COVID-19, will be his country’s first pole-sitter since 1997 world champion Jacques Villeneuve.

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