Bottas wins the battle with Hamilton and Verstappen and gets pole in the Eifel GP – Formula 1

Valtteri Bottas won an intense battle at the end of Q3 of the Formula 1 Eifel GP qualifying training session against Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen. With an exceptional lap in 1min25s269 this Saturday afternoon (10th) at the Nürburgring, the Finn maintained the hegemony of Mercedes and will start from pole for the 14th time in his career.

Hamilton tried well, but was 0s256 behind his teammate and will share the front row this Sunday. And Verstappen, who emerged as a great candidate for pole in the first minutes of Q3, will start only third, having at his side, in the second row, one of the great names of the session: Charles Leclerc, fourth with Ferrari.

Alexander Albon, with the second Red Bull car, starts fifth and will have Daniel Ricciardo’s Renault at his side. The Anglo-French team did well this Saturday and also placed Esteban Ocon in seventh position. Lando Norris, with McLaren, was eighth, while Sergio Pérez and Carlos Sainz of Racing Point and McLaren, respectively, close the top 10.

The start of the Eifel GP is scheduled for 9:10 am (Brasilia time). Before, starting at 8 am, the BIG PRIZE Broadcasts Briefing, a pre-race program on GPTV, our YouTube channel, with all the qualifying analysis and the latest information direct from the Nürburgring.

Find out how the F1 Eifel GP qualifying session was

Q1: Called last minute, Hülkenberg comes out last. Räikkönen also falls

With a 40% probability of rain, 8.8ºC of ambient temperature and 17.5ºC of asphalt, Formula 1 set out to define the starting grid for the 11th stage of the 2020 season. The session, even in the cold, started with sun, but the track was surrounded by thicker clouds in the first minutes of Q1.

Wearing a yellow and black helmet, Nico Hülkenberg, called up at the last minute by Racing Point to replace Lance Stroll, was one of the first to leave the track, thus having the unexpected opportunity to race in front of the local crowd.

One of the points of the classification was at the limits of the track, more specifically in turn 4. The first of the pilots who had time eliminated for committing the infraction was Kevin Magnussen, precisely the owner of the first lap quick sorting.

Mercedes soon took the lead with Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas. The six-time champion had 1min26s703, time made on soft tires, being 0s223 faster than Valtteri Bottas. The provisional 1-2 was broken by a Ferrari by Charles Leclerc, who proved to be strong at the beginning of the session, but all were defeated by Max Verstappen’s Red Bull, who finished 1min26s319, time 0s384 better than Hamilton.

On the next lap, the Mercedes pair were unable to beat Verstappen, but Bottas moved ahead of Hamilton, with Leclerc in fourth place and Alexander Albon closing the top-five with the second Taurean car.

In midfield, Nicholas Latifi stood out with a strong lap that temporarily placed him in 13th place, just ahead of George Russell, his teammate Williams. Who was not well was Racing Point, which had Sergio Pérez in 15th and Hülkenberg in 20th and last.

At the end of Q1, with his opponents constantly improving over time, Hülkenberg was eliminated, as were Romain Grosjean de Haas, Russell and Latifi. Also in the first round was Kimi Räikkönen, who on Sunday will break the record for the driver with the most starts in the Formula 1 World Championship: 323 GP.

Q2: Vettel is out of the final for the seventh time in a row. Hamilton flies and Leclerc is doing well

Hamilton and Bottas came out of the pits with their respective cars covered with new medium tires. Ferrari, surprisingly even, sent Leclerc and Vettel to the track at middleweight as well, as Renault did with Daniel Ricciardo. The rest, including Verstappen, were sped up on the soft compounds.

On his first pass in Q2, Hamilton posted 1min26s183, an excellent time. Bottas couldn’t even stay close to his colleague’s time and fell 0s771 behind, even being outscored by Perez’s Racing Point. Until Verstappen clocked 1min25s720 to get to the top of the table.

With the end of the first fastest laps, Verstappen was the leader, with Hamilton in second, Albon in third and Norris in fourth, while Ocon closed the top-5. Vettel appeared only in 11th place, two positions behind Leclerc, with the German being the first among the possible eliminations.

Soon after, Mercedes put on soft tires for Hamilton and Bottas. Eighth in the table, the Nordic had no choice but to accelerate to set time and change the strategy for Sunday’s start. Even having improved his time, with 1min25s971, Valtteri was guaranteed in Q3.

Hamilton also changed his strategy and kicked Verstappen’s time by registering 1min25s390. The Dutchman came out of the pits for another fast lap on new soft tires. Ferrari and Renault followed Mercedes and changed their strategy by opting for the fastest compounds of the weekend.

With 1min26s096, Ricciardo secured himself with some peace of mind in Q3. Meanwhile, Verstappen was flying on the track in the first two sectors, but lost a bit of time at the end of the lap, leaving 0s077 behind Hamilton. Leclerc, in good shape from Ferrari, also made it to the final, but Vettel failed. The four-time champion was eliminated in Q2 as were AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly and Daniil Kvyat, Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi and Haas’s Kevin Magnussen.

Q3: Bottas wins the battle with Hamilton and Verstappen and leads the Nürburgring

Unlike what is usual in Q3, it was McLaren, not Mercedes, who sent their drivers to the track first. Behind the cars of Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris were Hamilton and Bottas, with the rest in sequence. All drivers on soft tires for the decisive laps.

Hamilton served 1min25s825 on his first pass, but Bottas passed him by only 0s013. But Verstappen, in an exceptional lap, again dethroned the Mercedes duo to take the lead with 1min25s744, 0s068 faster than the Finnish car n.

The top 5 had Verstappen leading, Bottas, Hamilton, Albon and Leclerc closing in fifth. But there were still a few minutes to go before the final attempts were made before the owner of the pole was defined.

Among the three favorites on pole, Hamilton was the first to open his lap. Bottas managed to be faster in the first and also in the second sector. Lewis scored 1min25s525. The Finn outscored his colleague with 1min25s269, while Verstappen was 0s293 behind, placing only in third place.

Pole-position for Bottas at the Eifel Formula 1 GP.

F1 2020, Eifel GP, Nürburgring, Start Grid: