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FORMULA ONE: Lance Stroll claimed his first Formula One pole position for the Racing Point team in an exciting wet weather qualifying session at the Turkish Grand Prix in Istanbul yesterday (November 14).
Stroll is the first non-Mercedes driver to start from pole this season. Photo: AFP.
The 22-year-old Canadian staked his claim in fascinating fashion. Heavy rains lengthened the session to over two hours, and even as the weather cleared, standing water combined with the oily bitumen from the newly laid Istanbul Park circuit to make the track extremely slippery and difficult to judge from the cockpit.
Stroll is the first non-Mercedes driver to start from pole this season, with championship leader Lewis Hamilton and title contender Valtteri Bottas starting sixth and ninth respectively in a car that struggled in conditions.
“I can’t really put it into words at the moment,” Stroll said. “I am in shock.
“I was under a lot of pressure, I only had one lap to do it there at the end. I had valtteri [Bottas] which spun in front of me and then I had a turn at the end to do it.
“I had the confidence in the car and I just nailed almost every corner and put it together really well.”
Sweeter still, he bit off renowned wet weather expert Max Verstappen on Red Bull Racing’s fastest machine by 0.29 seconds.
But Verstappen was entitled to feel that pole should have been his after comfortably leading the previous two qualifying segments.
But his team took off the completely wet tire and moved it to the middle during the final shootout, and the RB16 was not only less comfortable on the slicker tire, it also left the Dutchman in slower traffic, hindering your efforts to wear the gum. up to temperature.
“For us, the interests were horrible,” said Verstappen, clearly frustrated. “I am a bit disappointed, of course.
“When you’re first all the time and you come second, it’s not what you want.”
Sergio Pérez was third for Racing Point after holding provisional pole for much of Q3, but the Mexican went off the track on his last lap to fall behind Verstappen, who improved late, and his teammate who secured the pole.
“A great result for the team, something we really did not expect,” he said.
“Very satisfied – in the end [I was] just bad luck. “
Thai driver Alex Albon qualified fourth for Red Bull Racing after receiving the same tires as his teammate Verstappen. He beat Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo, who will start fifth.
Hamilton will attempt to seal his seventh championship record from sixth on the grid. The Brit only needs to prevent teammate Bottas, who starts ninth, from overtaking him by eight points or more to confirm the title.
Among the teammates will start Renault’s Esteban Ocon and Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen in the Italian team’s best qualifying performance of the year, with Antonio Giovinazzi completing the top 10.
McLaren teammates Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz were eliminated 11th and 13th after betting on the middle tire when the track was too wet in Q2.
Sebastian Vettel divided the couple into 12th for Ferrari, beating his teammate Charles Leclerc, who will start 14th, for the first time since August.
Pierre Gasly will start 15th for AlphaTauri ahead of Haas driver Kevin Magnussen, who was enraged after his elimination in Q1 because several drivers ignored the double-wave yellow flags to improve their times and push him into the knockout zone.
The stewards said they would open an investigation into any breaches of the precautionary rules after qualifying.
Daniil Kvyat from AlphaTauri scored 17th ahead of Williams driver George Russell, although the Brit will start last with a grid penalty for using any part of the engine too much.
Romain Grosjean and Nicholas Latifi qualified 19th and 20th after they both ran their cars aground in the gravel.
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