Formula 1

HAMILTON BAGS POLE POSITION FOR THE PORTUGUESE GP

Published

2 years ago

24/10/2020

HAMILTON BAGS POLE POSITION FOR THE PORTUGUESE GP

Full qualifying results for the Portuguese Grand Prix at the Algarve International Circuit, round 12 of the 2020 F1 world championship season.

Hamilton Pole Position Portuguese GP – Lewis Hamilton snatched pole position for the Portuguese Grand Prix at the last moment to defeat Mercedes Formula 1 team-mate Valtteri Bottas. Bottas topped every session of the weekend until it counted, having set the pace in every practice session and the first two segments of qualifying.

The Mercedes drivers switched to the medium-compound tyres for their final runs in Q3. Hamilton was first to run and initially took pole, only to be beaten by Bottas’s next lap.

But Hamilton managed to do a second quick lap on the mediums, and he found enough time to defeat Bottas by 0.102 seconds.

2020 F1 PORTUGUESE GRAND PRIX – QUALIFYING RESULTS


POS.	DRIVER	NAT.	TEAM	Q1	Q2	Q3
1	Lewis Hamilton	GBR	Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team	1m 16.828	1m 16.824	1m 16.652
2	Valtteri Bottas	FIN	Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team	1m 16.945	1m 16.466	1m 16.754
3	Max Verstappen	NED	Aston Martin Red Bull Racing	1m 16.879	1m 17.038	1m 16.904
4	Charles Leclerc	MON	Scuderia Ferrari	1m 17.421	1m 17.367	1m 17.090
5	Sergio Perez	MEX	BWT Racing Point F1 Team	1m 17.370	1m 17.129	1m 17.223
6	Alexander Albon	THA	Aston Martin Red Bull Racing	1m 17.435	1m 17.411	1m 17.437
7	Carlos Sainz	ESP	McLaren F1 Team	1m 17.627	1m 17.183	1m 17.520
8	Lando Norris	GBR	McLaren F1 Team	1m 17.547	1m 17.321	1m 17.525
9	Pierre Gasly	FRA	Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda	1m 17.209	1m 17.367	1m 18.034
10	Daniel Ricciardo	AUS	Renault F1 Team	1m 17.621	1m 17.481	No time set
11	Esteban Ocon	FRA	Renault F1 Team	1m 17.775	1m 17.614
12	Lance Stroll	CAN	BWT Racing Point F1 Team	1m 17.667	1m 17.626
13	Daniil Kvyat	RUS	Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda	1m 17.841	1m 17.728
14	George Russell	GBR	Williams Racing	1m 17.931	1m 18.404
15	Sebastian Vettel	GER	Scuderia Ferrari	1m 17.446	1m 17.919
16	Kimi Raikkonen	FIN	Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen	1m 18.201
17	Antonio Giovinazzi	ITA	Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen	1m 18.323
18	Romain Grosjean	FRA	Haas F1 Team	1m 18.364
19	Kevin Magnussen	DEN	Haas F1 Team	1m 18.508
20	Nicholas Latifi	CAN	Williams Racing	1m 18.908

Before Hamilton’s final improvement he was briefly off the front row, as Max Verstappen got himself between the Mercedes drivers with his final lap. In the end Verstappen had to settle for third, a quarter of a second behind Hamilton.

Charles Leclerc, who was the only other driver to progress from Q2 using the mediums along with the Mercedes drivers, grabbed fourth on the grid, ahead of Sergio Perez in the lead Racing Point.

Their late improvements knocked Alex Albon down to sixth. Red Bull’s second driver switched to the soft tyres for his final run after starting Q3 on the mediums, and after briefly getting up to fourth he fell back by the end of the session.

The McLarens of Carlos Sainz Jr and Lando Norris filled the fourth row of the grid, with Pierre Gasly ninth for AlphaTauri.

Daniel Ricciardo didn’t set a time in Q3, after spinning at the end of Q2 and nudging the barrier with his rear wing.

His Renault team tried to fit a new wing in time for him to take part in Q3, but it wasn’t possible.

With very few improvements at the end of Q2, Ricciardo’s late spin was the main drama, caused when he slightly wide on the approach to Turn 11 avoiding traffic before losing the rear end.

He still beat team-mate Esteban Ocon to a Q3 slot – and the Frenchman also almost spun at the same corner.

Ocon will be joined on the sixth row of the grid by Lance Stroll, who questioned if the track was slower at the end of Q2 as hardly any drivers improved on their final runs.

Behind Daniil Kvyat in 13th, Williams driver George Russell out-qualified the Ferrari of Sebastian Vettel to take 14th place.

Vettel joined team-mate Leclerc in completing both Q2 runs on the medium tyre, a strategy only the Mercedes drivers also took.

After his unsuccessful final attempt, Vettel said over the radio that he struggled to get his front tyres warmed up for the early part of the lap, highlighting Turns 3 and 5 as the corners where he felt it the most.

Kimi Raikkonen briefly looked like he was going to escape from Q1 when his final lap put him 15th at the expense of Grosjean, but the 2007 world champion was knocked out when Russell came across the line to cement his seventh Q2 appearance of the season for Williams.

Raikkonen led the group of cars eliminated in Q1, ahead of his Alfa Romeo team-mate Antonio Giovinazzi, ousted-for-2021 Haas drivers Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen, and the second Williams of Nicholas Latifi, who was eight tenths slower than Russell.

HAMILTON BAGS POLE POSITION FOR THE PORTUGUESE GP HAMILTON BAGS POLE POSITION FOR THE PORTUGUESE GP