Formula 1

BOTTAS TAKES POLE POSITION FOR THE SAKHIR GP

Published

2 years ago

05/12/2020

Bottas takes pole position for the Sakhir GP, just 0.026s ahead of team-mate Russell on his Mercedes debut. Verstappen takes third, with Leclerc and Perez completing the top five.

Valtteri Bottas defeated new team-mate George Russell to claim pole position for Formula 1’s Sakhir Grand Prix, where just 0.056 seconds covered the top three cars.

Mercedes drivers Bottas and Russell were separated by 0.026s at the end of Q3, while the Red Bull of Max Verstappen ran them very close around the 53-second lap.

Charles Leclerc put in one of the surprise laps of the session to claim fourth in his Ferrari, only running once in Q3 while the Mercedes drivers did three runs.

Sergio Perez took fifth for Racing Point, while Daniil Kvyat’s only lap of the Q3 as the chequered flag came out was good enough to put him sixth on the grid.

2020 F1 SAKHIR GRAND PRIX – QUALIFYING RESULTS


POS.	DRIVER	NAT.	TEAM	Q1	Q2	Q3
1	Valtteri Bottas	FIN	Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team	0:53.904	0:53.803	0:53.377
2	George Russell	GBR	Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team	0:54.160	0:53.819	0:53.403
3	Max Verstappen	NED	Aston Martin Red Bull Racing	0:54.037	0:53.647	0:53.433
4	Charles Leclerc	MON	Scuderia Ferrari	0:54.249	0:53.825	0:53.613
5	Sergio Perez	MEX	BWT Racing Point F1 Team	0:54.236	0:53.787	0:53.790
6	Daniil Kvyat	RUS	Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda	0:54.346	0:53.856	0:53.906
7	Daniel Ricciardo	AUS	Renault F1 Team	0:54.388	0:53.871	0:53.957
8	Carlos Sainz	ESP	McLaren F1 Team	0:54.450	0:53.818	0:54.010
9	Pierre Gasly	FRA	Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda	0:54.207	0:53.941	0:54.154
10	Lance Stroll	CAN	BWT Racing Point F1 Team	0:54.595	0:53.840	0:54.200
11	Esteban Ocon	FRA	Renault F1 Team	0:54.309	0:53.995
12	Alexander Albon	THA	Aston Martin Red Bull Racing	0:54.620	0:54.026
13	Sebastian Vettel	GER	Scuderia Ferrari	0:54.301	0:54.175
14	Antonio Giovinazzi	ITA	Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen	0:54.523	0:54.377
15	Lando Norris	GBR	McLaren F1 Team	0:54.194	0:54.693
16	Kevin Magnussen	DEN	Haas F1 Team	0:54.705
17	Nicholas Latifi	CAN	Williams Racing	0:55.796
18	Jack Aitken	GBR	Williams Racing	0:54.892
19	Kimi Raikkonen	FIN	Alfa Romeo Racing Orlen	0:54.963
20	Pietro Fittipaldi	BRA	Haas F1 Team	0:55.426

Daniel Ricciardo and Carlos Sainz Jr filled row four of the grid, ahead of Pierre Gasly and Lance Stroll.

Esteban Ocon failed to make it two Renaults in Q3, narrowly missing out in 11th. He’ll share the sixth row of the grid with Alex Albon, who suffered another painful Saturday afternoon in the second Red Bull, having complained after his first run of Q2 that he didn’t feel he could go any faster.

Sebastian Vettel, whose car was running with the engine he used in Friday practice after Ferrari decided to change it at the end of FP3, claimed 13th.

Antonio Giovinazzi was 14th, having won the battle of the ‘Class C’ cars in Q1 in the absence of the Russell/Williams combination that has so often left the other five drivers in the slowest three teams eliminated at the first stage of qualifying.

He wasn’t slowest in Q2 though, as Lando Norris was 15th. The McLaren driver aborted the first lap of his final run, then pitted at the end of his second attempt despite having set personal best times through the first two sectors.

F1’s two debutants, Jack Aitken at Williams and Pietro Fittipaldi at Haas, were both out in Q1.

Aitken appeared to have a shot at outqualifying team-mate Nicholas Latifi, but he had to settle for 18th – under a tenth behind the Canadian after running wide at the final corner on his final lap.

Fittipaldi was slowest, but he was always destined to start the race from the back of the grid due to penalties for taking new engine components.

BOTTAS TAKES POLE POSITION FOR THE SAKHIR GP BOTTAS TAKES POLE POSITION FOR THE SAKHIR GP

F1 SAKHIR : FITTIPALDI SET FOR ENGINE GRID PENALTY

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