Lewis Hamilton has taken his 92nd pole position, but only by the smallest of margins. Valtteri Bottas and Max Verstappen round out the top 3, while Sergio Perez impresses with 4th on his return to F1.
Q1
The cars wasted no time getting out on to the grid and Mercedes stamped their authority early on. The soft tyre was not a hindrance this week and was used straightaway. The gap between the midfield cars was close and despite many solid laps, track evolution looked strong. This meant the final laps would be crucial. As the drivers were getting ready for their last runs, many drivers got caught in traffic, especially around sector 3. For only the second time this year, George Russell was unable to make Q2. He claimed that traffic disrupted his preparation, but he was still able to out-qualify his team-mate by over half a second. Despite showing strong pace in the earlier sessions both Haas cars were knocked out of Q1 as well. Romain Grosjean apologised on the radio at the end of the session after his team had a late night working on his car. Antonio Giovinazzi struggled through the session, but Alfa Romeo will be buoyed by Kimi Raikkonen managing to make it through for the first time in 2020.
Eliminated
- 16th Magnussen
- 17th Grosjean
- 18th Russell
- 19th Latifi
- 20th Giovinazzi
Q2
As Mercedes and Max Verstappen started to show their true pace, the midfield battle was hotting up. No cars took a gamble on tyres and each driver set their times on the softest compound. Sebastian Vettel yet again was unable to make Q2 despite being much closer to his team-mate’s time than normal. However, starting 11th and with free choice of tyres, the German may be satisfied with his finishing position. He was only 0.002 off Lando Norris, who continues his strong run of qualifying performances. Daniil Kvyat was unable to make the most of his reasonably strong Alpha Tauri, while his team-mate managed to jump to 5th overall. Renault had a session to forget as their drivers finished 13th and 15th, split by the impressive Kimi Raikkonen.
Eliminated:
- 11th Vettel
- 12th Kvyat
- 13th Ricciardo
- 14th Raikkonen
- 15th Ocon
Q3
Going into the final round, it was clear which constructor would take pole. But which driver and by how much? Both Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas didn’t manage particularly clean laps and were unable to improve on their second runs. Hamilton managed to pip Bottas to provisional pole by 0.059, but Bottas looked set to improve until a disastrous final sector wiped out his progress. To add insult to injury, any improvement would have given Bottas the edge of Hamilton, the Briton’s final lap was almost half a second off his first time. Max Verstappen came 3rd over 7 tenths from the leaders, but will expect to catch up with strong race pace tomorrow. Racing Point showed surprising pace to take 4th and 5th, Sergio Perez just surpassing Lance Stroll. Alex Albon managed his best qualifying of late and should be able to stay out of midfield drama tomorrow. However, the Thai driver was still 0.7 away from his team-mate’s time. Next were the two McLarens, a reasonable performance from both. They were followed Charles Leclerc and the impressive Pierre Gasly.
Standings:
- Hamilton
- Bottas
- Verstappen
- Perez
- Stroll
- Albon
- Sainz
- Norris
- Leclerc
- Gasly
The Circuit de Catalyuna famously has one of the longest runs to the first corner. Both Max Verstappen and Valtteri Bottas will be looking to make the most of this as the race starts tomorrow. With temperatures set the soar, it could be another turbulent race for the reigning champions.
Featured Image Credit: @F1 Official Twitter
