Lewis Hamilton was delighted to grab the first-ever F1 pole at Mugello, but the prior work on the simulator did not really help him clinch the historic P1. Hamilton pumped in a 1:15.144 on his first Q3 hot lap, eeking out a 0.059 second advantage over Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas. He failed to improve on his second Q3 hot lap, but it did not matter as an off from Esteban Ocon in Sector 1 meant Bottas had to back off completely. But, prior to landing pole, Bottas very much had the upper hand on a track that Hamilton was struggling to learn. 'Normally I tend to think, [and] in my past I always felt, that one of my strengths is learning a circuit quite quickly,' Hamilton said, as quoted...
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