70th Aniv GP: Valtteri on Pole, Hulk third.
Valtteri Bottas pips Hamilton narrowly to take the Pole position. In a positive surprise to everyone, Hulkenburg comes third in the Racing Point.
Supreme Mercedes. Valtteri beats Lewis
With a freshly inked contract extension in his back pocket, an inspired Valtteri Bottas got the bit between his teeth to beat Mercedes team mate Lewis Hamilton to pole position, as super sub Nico Hulkenberg took a remarkable third for the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix at Silverstone.
The Finn set the pace in every single segment of qualifying, but was on the backfoot after the first runs in Q3 as Hamilton sauntered to the top of the timesheets. But Bottas refused to be rattled and while Hamilton improved again on his next effort, this time the Finn had an answer.
This was his 13th career pole position and sets him up nicely for the second successive race at Silverstone, having suffered the misery of a tyre deflation last time out when running second, with the Finn likely to be buoyed by the fact he has won the last two races he has started from P1.
Sublime Hulkenburg in the Racing Point
But the most impressive performance came from pink car of Nico Hulkenberg. The German was parachuted in to replace Sergio Perez, following the Mexican’s positive test for Covid 19, last weekend but failed to take the race start because of an engine issue. This weekend has been much smoother, with Hulkenberg comfortably beating regular race driver and team mate Stroll in all segments of qualifying.
His final effort was superb, the former Renault racer setting the third best time, inside a second of the dominant Mercedes and one tenth of a second clear of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen. Stroll had no answer to Hulkenberg as he ended up three places back.
Racing Point still has a big cloud hanging over them. Ferrari, Mclaren and Renault plan to appeal against Racing Point. At the same time Racing Point wants to appeal too for the verdict given by the stewards regarding their brake ducts.
RedBull : A distant second best team
Although we cannot say that for sure anymore with Racing Point looking in really good touch. Max was expected to be third. However Hulkenburg pipped him to that and but will start with him on the second row. Albon looked uncomfortable, especially in Q2. He just managed to come ninth. Lets hope he has a better race tomorrow.
Renault in good touch
Renault always makes grand claims about their cars improving which doesn’t appear to be true. This time however things are looking good. Daniel Ricciardo had a good quali session, coming in 5th. This after scoring some good points last week at the same track.
Esteban Ocon didn’t fare that well. He came P11 and on top of that has received a 3 place grid penalty for impeding George Russell during qualifying.
Ferrari woes continue
Charles actually looked in good touch in all the practice sessions. However even he could not convert it to a good position in the qualifying. He finished 8th on the grid.
Sebastian troubles continue. He had an engine issue yesterday in FP2. He finished P11 but most likely will be bumped one place for the Ocon penalty.
Ferrari needs to find the pace somehow, somewhere. Else they will have a painful 2020 season, and most likely 2021 too.
McLaren a bit out of touch
McLaren seemed to be doing really well in the practice session. When the testing came however they seemed a bit lackluster. Lando Norris just scraping by at P10 and Sainz at P13 ( now P12). They better have a good race pace.
Amongst the rest, Gasly was very impressive, punching much above the weight. He came in P7 in his AlphaTauri, ahead of Alex Albon in Red Bull, again.
George tried as hard as possible in his Williams and came 15th. Both the Ferrari powered teams – Alpha Romeo and HAAS didn’t do much to write about.
ALL EVERYONE IS HOPING FOR NOW IS A FAIRYTALE PODIUM FINISH FOR HULK TOMORROW.
Here is the final classification ( Ocon handed a 3 place penalty later)
Click here to watch the Qualifying highlights.