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Another great pole from Hamilton, with Bottas losing his best position on the grid at the end of an exciting qualifying. On Saturday at Portiamo, however, he explains that Red Bull and Ferrari are closing in on Mercedes. The GP is live on Sky Sport F1 (channel 207) and Sky Sport Uno (channel 201)
PORTIMAO, CLASSIFIED HIGHLIGHTS
Hamilton posted the fastest lap in qualifying by claiming pole position number 97 of his career. For the world champion rider it was a rather difficult seventh final. Bottas was faster than him in all sessions and was also able to precede him in Q1 and Q2. But at that point the Briton managed to set the best lap of the weekend with a fast double lap on medium tires. Bottas, on the other hand, had decided to do a single fastest lap on the same tire compound as Lewis.
In the second row
Here you will click Verstappen who, thanks to a growing Red Bull RB16, managed to qualify just 2-tenths from pole position. Fourth time for Ferrari Leclerc who managed to put Perez’s Racing Point behind him, Albon’s other Red Bull and the two Sainz and Norris McLarens. Alpha Tauri de Gasly and Renault de Ricciardo close the top 10.
Mercedes and Leclerc at the start with the socks
The tires on this track are quite difficult to warm up (especially the front ones). Another very important factor that led some drivers to qualify in Q2 with “yellow” was the grain. This phenomenon has decreased compared to yesterday but it does not reassure the pilots that they will have to use the soft in the first stint of the race. The track has improved considerably compared to yesterday, but this did not put Mercedes and Ferrari in doubt, who did their best to take advantage of the averages at the start of the race. It was easy enough for the Anglo-German team to qualify, while Ferrari struggled a bit more. This choice cost Vettel qualification, as he only managed to exclude himself from the top 10 for the fifteenth time. There was no mistake on the Maranello wall as the German rider preferred to seek qualification with this compound rather than entering the top 10 and having to use the soft at the start of the race. Vettel was quite clear with the press highlighting the many problems he had with the soft these days: “All weekend I struggled with the soft ones, they “split open” and had too much grainy. We thought the averages were better but on the second try I couldn’t get them to work and they knocked me out“Despite the evolution of the track, Pirelli confirmed the deltas that they expected on the eve: 6 tenths between soft and medium and 9 between medium and hard.
Red Bull and Ferrari get closer to Mercedes
The world champion team has long since abandoned developments and rival teams are taking advantage of it. Red Bull, race after race, is getting closer and closer to the performance of the W11. In recent races we have also seen a remarkable focus from Ferrari and this is excellent news for the Italian team and it means that the updates brought to the track are giving excellent results. This impression was also confirmed by the Monegasque conductor: “I feel pretty good with the car, it’s not that it’s easier to drive with balance, but we’re adding performance to the car and that’s important. I am very happy with the work done by the team: there are 4 GPs that when we bring new parts I say that we are not looking for miracles, but small steps at the same time make the difference and today we have seen it ”.
Target confirms
For Leclerc and Vettel it will be important to confirm the performance even in race settings like, at Nurburgring, the excellent qualification was frustrated by a race pace not up to par Renault, Mclaren me Racing point. Leclerc had it very clear at the end of qualifying: “It’s just qualifying, points have to be scored tomorrow, but we did better here than at the Nürburgring, as we made the cut in Q3 on medium tires. This gives us hope for tomorrow. It will be very important to have a good race tomorrow, to be able to evaluate and understand exactly where we are. We hope to manage the tires well, this morning I had positive feelings ”.
Bottas “disbanded” at the decisive moment
The Finnish driver could not take the first position because in Q3 he could not repeat the performance obtained in Q2 (1: 16.466). Even looking at the split times we can see that he had more speed than Hamilton, but he couldn’t put in an excellent qualifying lap. at the decisive moment. The Briton, together with his track engineer, chose the right strategy in order to exploit the full potential of his medium tires. They chose to start with more gas to add 2 fast laps, while Bottas preferred to take advantage of a single lap. This decision turned out to be a winner, as Lewis himself admitted at the end of qualifying: “In the end, I chose to do three laps to have more chances: it worked, because I was able to improve with each lap. There was time to do it. However, it was not easy, it was a continuous “excavation”. We had a great car, sure, but there was a lot to do to put together the drive-level trip. The team, communicating very well with us drivers, has given us the double alternative of soft and medium tires. We both chose high school; I, then, to do 3 laps, while Bottas one dry. It is difficult to get the medium tires to work well, because they are very hard compounds brought here: that’s why I wanted to have one more try at my disposal ”.
Valtteri, watch out for the beginning
A Bottas who will have to be quite careful at the beginning if he wants to fight for victory. Behind him will be Verstappen, who will start from the clean side of the track and can count on the extra grip of the soft tires.
Mercedes and Ferrari tested the race pace in FP3
It will be a very interesting race also because, different teams, have not tested the race pace during free practice. This morning Mercedes and Ferrari worked very hard to check the performance of their cars both in low fuel and in race conditions.
Even at race pace
The fuel load is not known but the data shows that it never SF1000 he had been so close to the W11 even at race pace.
