Photo: Liauzh via Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 4.0, cropped.
Vegan Lewis Hamilton has taken his first Grand Prix pole position for Ferrari, beating George Russell by just 0.009 seconds in qualifying for the Mexico City Grand Prix on Saturday, October 31.
It was the 105th pole of his career and his first since the 2023 Hungarian Grand Prix. At 41, he is the oldest driver to take pole since Mario Andretti in 1982. Charles Leclerc made it a Ferrari one-three on the grid.
Hamilton told the FIA press conference the lap took him back to "watching Michael get all those pole positions", calling it "very, very special", according to IBTimes.
I don't really remember the last time I had a pole.
In today's race he finished second, 0.799 seconds behind Max Verstappen, The Race reports. It is another strong result in a year that has finally seen him gel with the red car.
It started back in March at the Chinese Grand Prix, where he finished third behind Kimi Antonelli and Russell for his first Grand Prix podium in Ferrari colors. "I definitely feel like I'm back to my best, both mentally and physically," he said in Shanghai, as reported by Reuters.
Hamilton went vegan in 2017 and has said repeatedly that it helps. "I think my health has just got better and better over the last couple of years as I've gone to the plant-based diet," he said, as quoted by VegNews. Recovery matters more than ever in your forties, and he is still out-qualifying drivers half his age.
Last year Hamilton won his first race in Ferrari red at the Shanghai sprint, from sprint pole. In June he won his first Grand Prix for Ferrari in Barcelona, and back in 2021 he became the first driver to reach 100 career poles.
Forty-one, on pole, on plants.