Bottas grabs Sakhir GP pole!
TDT | Manama
The Daily Tribune – www.newsofbahrain.com
Valtteri Bottas was the last man standing in one of the most intriguing and unpredictable Formula 1 qualifying sessions of the season last night in the Rolex Sakhir Grand Prix at Bahrain International Circuit (BIC).
Bottas captured the pole with a blistering lap of 53.377 seconds in Q3, beating out teammate George Russell driving in place of Lewis Hamilton this weekend by just 0.026 seconds to lock out the front row for Mercedes for the second successive weekend.
Bottas commented after qualifying: “It’s great to be on pole, I’m happy with that, but this wasn’t my best qualifying. My second run in Q3 was decent, but I think there was still a bit of time missing in Turn 7 and 8. I was the first car out on track on the final run, so I didn’t have a tow and ultimately couldn’t improve. It was fairly close in the end, so I’m pleased it was enough for pole position.
“It’s great to see George in P2 and that we managed to lock out the front row for the team. I’m not really surprised to see him up there; he kept improving throughout the weekend and particularly through qualifying. “The track is quite bumpy and it’s actually fairly easy to follow other cars thanks to the tow, but we’re in the best possible position for tomorrow and are looking forward to a fun race.” Qualifying behind them was Max Verstappen (+0.056s) of Red Bull Racing and Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc (+0.236s), while Sergio Perez (+0.413s) of Racing Point and Daniil Kvyat (+0.529s) of AlphaTauri secured the grid positions on row three. Completing the front 10 will be Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo (+0.580s), McLaren’s Carlos Sainz (+0.633s), Pierre Gasly (+0.777s) in the second AlphaTauri, and Lance Stroll (+0.823s) in the other Racing Point car.
Verstappen had earlier led the field after Q2 while Bottas was the top man at the end of Q1, both already with sub 54 second times.
Q2 saw some disappointing exits for some after starting the weekend with promising performances. Renault’s Este ban Ocon, Red Bull’s Alexander Albon, Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel, Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Gio vinazzi and McLaren’s Lando Norris all had their qualifying campaigns end there and will begin today’s race from 11th to 15th, respectively.
Eliminated from further contention in Q1 were Kevin Magnussen of Haas, Nicholas Latifi and Jack Aitken of Williams, Kimi Raikkonen in the other Alfa Romeo, and Pietro Fittipal di in the second Haas car. They complete the start grid from 16th to 20th.
Aitken is driving in place of Russell this weekend while Fittipaldi is subbing for Romain Grosjean as he continues to recover from his crash at last weekend’s F1 Gulf Air Bahrain Grand Prix.
Earlier yesterday evening, Verstappen stormed to the top of the timesheet in the third F1 practice, clocking a fastest lap of 54.064secs—the best time of the meeting at that time. Verstappen completed 23 laps in the 60-minute session and finished 0.206s quicker than Bottas. Gasly was third fastest 0.363s off Verstappen’s pace, while Ocon placed fourth 0.389s behind.
The rest of the top 10 included Norris, Albon, Russell, Perez, Stroll and Sainz, while rom 11th to 20th were Giovinazzi, Kvyat, Leclerc, Ricciardo, Vettel, Raikkonen, Magnussen, Latifi, Fittipaldi and Aitken.
Earlier yesterday evening, Verstappen stormed to the top of the timesheet in the third F1 practice, clocking a fastest lap of 54.064secs—the best time of the meeting at the time.
Verstappen completed 23 laps in the 60-minute session and finished 0.206s quicker than Bottas. Gasly was third fastest 0.363s off Verstappen’s pace, while Ocon placed fourth 0.389s behind.
The rest of the top 10 included Norris, Albon, Russell, Perez, Stroll and Sainz, while rom 11th to 20th were Giovinazzi, Kvyat, Leclerc, Ricciardo, Vettel, Raikkonen, Magnussen, Latifi, Fittipaldi and Aitken.
Today’s F1 Rolex Sakhir Grand Prix is the second race of Bahrain’s first-ever F1 double-header. It is the penultimate round of the 2020 F1 season.
Related Posts