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(Motorsport-Total.com) – After Valtteri Bottas set the best time in all free practice sessions for the Tuscan Grand Prix (Formula 1 2020 on Sunday from 2:45 pm live on the ticker! ), Lewis Hamilton secured himself again in qualifying at Mugello. pole position, for the 95th time in his career. The Mercedes rider set a new course record of 1: 15.144 minutes and was 30.375 seconds behind Marc Márquez’s pole in MotoGP in 2019.
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Valtteri Bottas didn’t miss much this time on pole position at Mugello Focus
“Valtteri,” admits Hamilton, “was faster than me yesterday and this morning. Also in Q1. So I worked hard to improve my line and set-up.” And until the last minute: in Q1, Hamilton was the only top rider to take to the track for the second time because he was still not satisfied with his set-up.
But it was worth it. In the first race of Q3, he was 0.059 seconds faster than Bottas, and he should stay that way. Hamilton could not improve his time due to the increased wind, Bottas collided with the yellow flags of Esteban Ocon (Renault). “My first lap was good, but not perfect,” he says. “It’s a shame, because the speed has been good so far.”
Although, unlike Mercedes, he managed to make marginal gains in the grand final, Max Verstappen (Red Bull) was 0.365 seconds behind P3. “I never expected to beat them in qualifying. But overall this weekend has been very promising so far,” said the happy 22-year-old, who was almost on par with Bottas on FT3.
Verstappen with competition set-up: “We can be happy”
“Monza,” he says, “was difficult. We can be happy to be third here now.” Especially since things could go even better on Sunday: “We are fully prepared for the race and things are looking much better there,” says Red Bull motorsports consultant Helmut Marko. And Mercedes team boss Toto Wolff says: “Our long runs were identical to Red Bull’s.”
The local Ferrari team had no reason to be happy in the anniversary qualifying. Charles Leclerc (+1,126) was at least fifth; Sebastian Vettel trembled with difficulty during Q1 and then retired in Q2 as 14th. He lost the team’s internal duel by 0.534 seconds, and from his point of view it is already 2: 7 in 2020.
“At the moment, I am not able to drive the car,” admits Vettel. Conditions would have been ideal, because with the two Racing Points, Leclerc, Daniil Kwjat (12th / AlphaTauri) and Romain Grosjean (15th / Haas), several drivers did not improve on the second attempt in Q2.
Leclerc was faster than Vettel all weekend and consequently much more satisfied: “The balance was very good today,” he says happily. “That gave me confidence, so I was able to really attack on the qualifying lap. The first lap of Q3 was still on used tires. It was not easy to switch to a new tire.”
In the end, he was 0.316 seconds behind the second row. Alexander Albon achieved the best qualifying result of his career with P4. “We are happy that he has finally had a normal training session,” says Marko of her troubled son. The gap with Verstappen was still large at 0.445 seconds.
Perhaps Albon was also lucky that seven out of ten drivers did not improve their times due to the yellow flag. That kept dangerous race points away from him, for example. “It would have been faster. Fifth, maybe fourth,” believes Lance Stroll (7th / + 1212).
Racing Point announces: Racing is getting better
The third from Monza swaps places with his teammate Sergio Pérez (6th / +1,167) for the race as Pérez dropped one position on the grid due to a collision with Kimi Räikkönen (13th / Alfa Romeo) on Friday. However, Pérez is happy with the latest updates and announces: “I think tomorrow we will be closer to the Red Bulls.”
Renault could not take advantage of the good performance of training on Friday. Daniel Ricciardo was eighth (+1.399), Ocon tenth after his timeless spin. “Unfortunately, it was a bit over the limit,” said the Frenchman. “But there was still a long time to win, and Q3 is the time when he takes a little risk as well.”
Monza winner Pierre Gasly already did it in Q1. The AlphaTauri driver was just 0.197 seconds slower in Q1 than his teammate Daniil Kwjat (12th) in P10, and the Cut (Vettel) was only 0.053 seconds behind. But: “I had no more energy 300 meters from the line. That cost us more than a tenth,” he analyzes.
Nicholas Latifi was on his way to the top 15 after the first lap. Due to an error on the second attempt, he fell back to P19, 0.088 seconds behind his teammate George Russell, who had missed the last training session due to a brake defect. Russell’s impeccable statistics of never having lost an internal qualifying match in Formula 1 remain intact.
And now? Only for Mercedes in the race? Christian Horner contradicts: “In the third sector we were fast all weekend. So our best chance will be the first corner.” Especially because, in his opinion, Verstappen “can prepare the race like a cup final. He has nothing else to lose in the world championship.”
(Live Paddock: Qualifying Saturday on the F1 ticker)
