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Racing Point’s Lance Stroll claimed a sensational pole position in a chaotic wet qualifying session at the Turkish Grand Prix.
The Canadian beat Red Bull’s Max Verstappen by 0.290 seconds while Lewis Hamilton, on the brink of his seventh title, was only able to clinch sixth place.
But Stroll is one of the drivers under investigation for failing to slow down at the caution flags, so he may still lose his pole.
Hamilton’s Mercedes teammate and only title challenger, Valtteri Bottas, was ninth.
Stroll’s teammate Sergio Pérez was third ahead of Red Bull’s Alexander Albon and Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo.
Hamilton will be disappointed with his position on the grid, but he looks in great shape to win the title.
He will pull it off and equal Michael Schumacher’s all-time record, provided Bottas doesn’t beat him by more than seven points, and as the Finn is starting three places behind the world champion, he wouldn’t be expected to beat Hamilton.
How did Stroll do that?
Stroll’s pole came completely out of nowhere on a day when his Racing Point team clearly had their car set up to work the tires effectively on a treacherous and slippery track in challenging conditions.
The circuit celebrates a grand prix for the first time since 2011 and was resurfaced just two weeks ago, leaving an oily sheen on its surface that has made it precarious even when dry.
Perez was the fastest for most of the final qualifying session, but suffered traffic on his final lap when the track was at its best, leaving the door open for Stroll who seized the opportunity brilliantly.
The 22-year-old Stroll has had a checkered career since joining F1 with Williams in 2017, but has often excelled in wet conditions and did it again at Istanbul Park.
“I can’t really put it into words at the moment,” Stroll said. “I’m surprised. I didn’t expect us to be up here. In final practice there were a lot of things that we weren’t sure about making qualifying, we didn’t seem too competitive.
“But I’m so happy with it. I really put that lap together. Valtteri turned in front of me on one lap and then I had a lap at the end to do it and I nailed almost every corner.”
“It’s a great way to recover after a tough few weeks. Since Mugello it’s been a rough ride, but it feels really good right now.”
Stroll crashed at high speed in the closing laps of the Tuscan Grand Prix after a puncture, was pulled from the next Russian Grand Prix in a first-lap crash with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and then missed the Eifel Grand Prix when contracted the coronavirus.
He came back for the Portuguese Grand Prix, but has had two tough events there and at Imola, and he said that means that this “special moment” was much better for him.
Why wasn’t Mercedes strong?
Verstappen had been in impressive shape early in the qualifying session when the track was wetter and fully wet tires were required rather than intermediates with a shallower tread that was better suited to the track in the final session.
The Dutchman was two seconds faster than the others in the second part of qualifying and looked like a safe bet for pole.
But he found the car didn’t perform as well on the intermediate tires and Verstappen was dejected afterward, feeling like a shot on pole had slipped through his fingers.
“Back in Q1, when we tried to go out on interest, we had no control,” Verstappen said. “They were horrible for us. The extreme tires were good, we were very comfortable.”
Mercedes’ performance was a surprise because Hamilton is usually very strong in the wet and the car has been so dominant this season.
But Hamilton barely raced in the final wet practice session and never showed a competitive pace in qualifying, although he finished 0.7 seconds quicker and three places ahead of Bottas.
“We did the best we could and that was the fastest we could,” Hamilton said. “The track feels terrible, it’s like driving on ice, but for some reason some people can turn the tires better than us.”
“I did my best. Overall, I’m happy. I didn’t turn around or make any mistakes and did everything I could with what I had.”
Bottas added: “You couldn’t hold the temperature or create a temperature on the tires and it’s been history for us all weekend.
“The tire is the only thing that connects the car to the ground and if you can’t create grip on the tires, it doesn’t matter what car you have. The teams that made the tires work were at the top and we didn’t do a good job today. “.
But the disappointment of Mercedes was nothing compared to that of Leclerc and Ferrari.
Leclerc was second fastest behind Verstappen in final practice and imagined he was a contender for pole position, but the red cars had no pace in qualifying and finished 14th, two places behind his teammate Sebastian Vettel.
When told the difference to Verstappen at the end of second qualifying, Leclerc said incredulously: “Are we six seconds away?”
There may still be changes in the order of the grid as the stewards are investigating the end of the first session, when several drivers improved when there were yellow caution flags in a couple of corners.
The first session lasted one hour and included two red flag periods, the first of 40 minutes when conditions deteriorated due to heavier rain, and the second shortly after the restart when Romain Grosjean tossed his Haas onto the gravel in the first curve.
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