Eifel Grand Prix: Qualification – All the news of Formula 1 2020

Sunny. Dry. Air + 9 … 10С, track + 18 … 19С

This year, Friday’s two-day no-practice stage was scheduled for late October at Imola, but teams were able to assess the difficulties associated with this already at the Nurburgring.

On Friday, due to heavy fog, the medical helicopter was unable, if necessary, to reach the on-call hospital, both training sessions were canceled, and the teams only had one hour of Saturday session to prepare for qualification and qualification. career. The best time was shown by Valtteri Bottas.

A replacement has been made at Racing Point. On Saturday morning, Lance Stroll complained of poor health and the team turned to Nico Hulkenberg, who had already replaced Sergio Perez at Silverstone. Niko arrived immediately and after being tested for Covid-19, it was confirmed that he would participate in the qualification. They didn’t even have to adjust the seat, the team sat with them just in case.

Qualifying at the Nurburgring was not of fundamental importance: in Grand Prix 19 in the current track configuration the pole-holder won the race only three times, but it turned out to be interesting.

One of the problems was the cold weather: it was not easy to put the tires into running mode, during qualifying the drivers experimented, alternating slow and fast laps.

In the first session, Pérez went to Medium, the rest to Soft. In the pits, Gasly’s left front left wheel heated tire was not removed, but the mechanic quickly stopped and fixed everything.

Magnussen, Giovinazzi and Grosjean had their lap times canceled as they went off the track at turn four.

The runners worked in a series of laps. On the second try, Perez also put Soft in, and Verstappen, Bottas, Hamilton and Leclair turned him down.

Max Verstappen led the protocol with a lap in 1: 26.319. Grosjean, Russell, Latifi, Raikkonen, and Hulkenberg abandoned the subsequent fight. For the first time this season, Antonio Giovinazzi reached the second part of the standings.

In the second session, the drivers Mercedes, Ferrari and Riccardo came out for the first try on Medium, but only Hamilton managed to show a good time of them, so everyone put Soft on the second try, and added, so all the Top ten will start at Soft tomorrow.

On the second attempt, Lewis Hamilton led the protocol, having driven a circle in 1: 25.390 – Verstappen lost just 77 thousandths. Vettel, Gasli, Kvyat, Giovinazzi and Magnussen did not qualify for the final.

In the final, everyone used Soft. On the first attempt, Verstappen beat the protocol, completing a lap in 1: 25.744; Max’s top three and the Mercedes drivers conceded within eight hundredths.

On the second attempt, Bottas was faster – 1: 25.229 – this is now the new all-time Nurburgring record.

Valtteri Bottas won qualifying at the Nurburgring, taking third pole of the season and the 14th of his career. Lewis Hamilton lost two tenths; Tomorrow the Mercedes drivers will occupy the entire front row of the starting field for the eighth time this year.

Verstappen and Leclair start from the second row, Elbon and Riccardo start from the third. Daniil Kvyat will start the race 13th.

Qualification results