F1 QUALIFYING EMILIA ROMAGNA GP – BOTTAS BAGS POLE POSITION

Full qualifying results for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, Imola, round 13 of the 2020 F1 world championship season.

F1 QUALIFYING EMILIA ROMAGNA GP – Valtteri Bottas defeated Mercedes Formula 1 team-mate Lewis Hamilton in a close battle for pole position for the Emilia Romagna Grand Prix at Imola.

Fastest in the first and second segment, Bottas trailed Hamilton after the first runs in Q3, but overturned his deficit to record his fourth pole of the campaign.

Hamilton had raised up a cloud of dust with his right-side tyres at the final corner on his first push lap in Q3, but his 1m13.781s was nevertheless three hundredths quicker than Bottas as he returned to the pits.

2020 F1 EMILIA ROMAGNA GRAND PRIX – QUALIFYING RESULTS

POS.	DRIVER	NAT.	TEAM	Q1	Q2	Q3
1	Bottas	FIN	Mercedes	1m 14.221	1m 14.585	1m 13.609
2	Hamilton	GBR	Mercedes	1m 14.229	1m 14.643	1m 13.706
3	Verstappen	NED	Red Bull	1m 15.034	1m 14.974	1m 14.176
4	Gasly	FRA	AlphaTauri	1m 15.183	1m 14.681	1m 14.502
5	Ricciardo	AUS	Renault	1m 15.474	1m 14.953	1m 14.520
6	Albon	THA	Red Bull	1m 15.402	1m 14.745	1m 14.572
7	Leclerc	MON	Ferrari	1m 15.123	1m 15.017	1m 14.616
8	Kvyat	RUS	AlphaTauri	1m 15.412	1m 15.022	1m 14.696
9	Norris	GBR	McLaren	1m 15.274	1m 15.051	1m 14.814
10	Sainz	ESP	McLaren	1m 15.528	1m 15.027	1m 14.911
11	Perez	MEX	R.Point	1m 15.407	1m 15.061
12	Ocon	FRA	Renault	1m 15.352	1m 15.201
13	Russell	GBR	Williams	1m 15.760	1m 15.323
14	Vettel	GER	Ferrari	1m 15.571	1m 15.385
15	Stroll	CAN	R.Point	1m 15.822	1m 15.494
16	Grosjean	FRA	Haas	1m 15.918
17	Magnussen	DEN	Haas	1m 15.939
18	Raikkonen	FIN	Alfa Romeo	1m 15.953
19	Latifi	CAN	Williams	1m 15.987
20	Giovinazzi	ITA	Alfa Romeo	1m 16.208

He improved this to a 1m13.706s with his second and final attempt, but Bottas eclipsed that moments later with a 1m13.609s.

Only the two Mercedes cars managed sub-1m14s laps. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen shrugged off a Honda engine scare in Q2 to qualify a distant third, more than half a second off the pace.

Verstappen reported a loss of power during his first Q2 run and had to return to the pits without setting a time, with the team identifying a misfire as the cause and making a spark plug change to salvage his qualifying.

He set his first time in Q2 with mere seconds left on the clock – on the medium compound of tyres – but progressed comfortably into the final segment and take his place on the second row.

There he will be joined by former team-mate Pierre Gasly, who starred for AlphaTauri – the team potentially benefitting from its Imola filming run earlier this year – and matched his career-best grid position of fourth.

He was 0.018s quicker than fifth-placed Daniel Ricciardo, who emerged on track later than anyone else in Q1 and only escaped elimination with his final attempt.

Verstappen’s team-mate Alex Albon salvaged a respectable sixth from a difficult, nervy qualifying.

Albon had a spin at Variante Alta and mounted late escapes from the drop zone in both Q1 and Q2, while a competitive first lap in Q3 was written off due to a track limits infringement at Piratella.

Nonetheless, he gathered himself back together and posted a lap that was better than his initial effort, albeit four tenths slower than Verstappen’s.

Charles Leclerc took seventh for Ferrari, ahead of Gasly’s team-mate Lando Norris and the two McLarens of Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz Jr.

Sergio Perez was the quicker of the two Racing Points but needed another 0.01s to make it to Q3. He will start 11th, four places up on Lance Stroll who had an error-strewn showing in Q2 as Racing Point missed the final segment for the first time since the second race of the season at the Red Bull Ring.

Esteban Ocon lapped over two tenths slower than Renault team-mate Ricciardo, and will join Perez on row six.

Williams driver George Russell outpaced squadmate Nicholas Latifi in Q1 and secured his eighth Q2 appearance of the season, but was displeased with his lap.

He improved substantially in Q2 for 13th place on the starting grid, seeing off Sebastian Vettel – who suffered his 10th consecutive qualifying defeat versus team-mate Leclerc – and Stroll.

And Stroll had been a tenth away from missing Q2 entirely, but ultimately the Q1 drop zone was made up of the usual suspects, and headed by Haas driver Romain Grosjean.

The other Haas of Kevin Magnussen was only a couple of hundredths behind, the Dane compromised by running through the grass on exit of the second Rivazza right-hander on his final attempt.

Alfa Romeo driver Kimi Raikkonen had logged a laptime that was comfortably good enough for Q2 in the final seconds of the first segment, only to have it swiftly deleted for track limits.

This consigned him to 18th on the starting grid, although he was still narrowly ahead of Latifi and over two tenths clear of his team-mate Antonio Giovinazzi – who on Friday was confirmed by Alfa for 2021 alongside Raikkonen – in 20th.

F1 QUALIFYING EMILIA ROMAGNA GP F1 QUALIFYING EMILIA ROMAGNA GP

F1 EMILIA ROMAGNA GP – PRACTICE – HAMILTON LEADS FROM VERSTAPPEN, BOTTAS

REANULT REJECTS RED BULL’S REQUEST – “FORMULA 1 ENGINE FREEZE”

KEEP UP TO DATE WITH ALL THE F1 NEWS VIA Facebook AND Twitter