Hamilton takes pole, Leclerc 5th for Ferrari's 1000th GP

F1 Grand Prix, GP Tuscany Ferrari 1000, Autodromo Internazionale di Mugello

Lewis Hamilton took pole position for Sunday's race at Mugello, topping Bottas by just 0.059s. Verstappen ended up third while Charles Leclerc saved the day for Ferrari by going 5th fastest in the Scuderia's 1000th Grand Prix weekend.

The Williams cars kicked off qualifying as if nothing changed, but the team arrived at Mugello without a Williams family member involved in the team after Claire and Frank's departure from the sport.

When the blue and white cars completed their first laps, Racing Point sent their cars out, followed by the rest of the pack in the following few minutes.

To follow up on FP3, Bottas was again fastest, albeit this time just 0.029s ahead of team mate Hamilton. Verstappen and Albon were third and fourth fastest in this early stage, though already a telling half a second slower than the black Mercedes duo.

In the closing stages, Raikkonen secured a spot into Q2, along with Grosjean and Vettel. Last week's winner Pierre Gasly stranded in 16th while Russell also missed out because of a mistake that caused him to pick up some gravel on his final hot lap.

The second part of qualifying saw nobody try special tyre strategies. All drivers out on track opted to run the soft tyres. This time around, Hamilton got the better of Bottas, but again with just 0.013s. Max Verstappen edged closer to 0.162s, followed by Albon and Ricciardo.

Both Renaults also easily progressed into Q3, along with Leclerc, the Racing Points and Carlos Sainz. Lando Norris missed out by a tenth.

Then came the final session, when things really mattered. Sainz kicked that session off and posted 1:17.870, which soon proved to be too slow to be in for any surprise. Hamilton quickly smashed the McLaren driver's time with a lap in 1:15.144, leaving all in awe.

Bottas was unfazed, but after a quicker first sector, he faded off and ended up at 0.059s off of his teammate. Max Verstappen gave in 4 tenths, and Albon in 4th ended up 8 tenths down.

Perez was on a shifted schedule and only started his flying lap when all others had returned to the pits to prepare for their second runs. He was 5th fastest, a tenth up on his teammate Stroll.

The preparation for the second flying laps was another somewhat silly affair as all drivers drove really slowly towards the start of their attempts.

Hamilton failed to improve on his final outing, while everybody coming up behind Ocon were unable to improve either as the French Renault driver spun off.

In fact, only Leclerc managed to improve in the final minutes, bringing him up into 5th on Sunday's grid. That's probably as much as they could hope for at Ferrari in their 1000th Grand Prix weekend.