Hamilton in 'best form of season' after dominant qualifying - Horner

Christian Horner believes Lewis Hamilton is in his best form of the F1 title fight so far in Turkey after a dominant performance in qualifying.

The championship leader was over three-tenths of a second faster than third-fastest Max Verstappen and over a tenth quicker than team-mate Valtteri Bottas, who inherits pole with Hamilton's grid penalty for an engine change.

Praising the seven-time F1 champion's performance at Istanbul Park, Horner told Sky Sports F1: "Lewis is looking as quick as he has looked all year here at this circuit so far.

"The Mercedes is hooked up around here, it is working well on this asphalt and this circuit. He is going to be coming through pretty quick."

Sergio Perez looked on form throughout qualifying until his final lap in Q3, eventually failing to outqualify AlphaTauri driver Pierre Gasly and sealing only sixth on the grid.

Asked if the team would deploy Perez as a roadblock for Hamilton, Horner replied: "The best route to beat them is to finish ahead of them.

"So we are focused very much on our race and trying to make sure we capitalise the maximum points of both drivers.

"We can hopefully be closer to them in the race than we were in quali, we see they were quick over a single lap. Whether that is sustainable over a whole race, we will see tomorrow."

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