Valtteri Bottas claims Austrian GP pole, Vettel out at the end of Q2
Valtteri Bottas emerged as the strongest contender on Saturday in Austria. Mercedes secured a front row lockout ahead of Max Verstappen and Lando Norris. Ferrari is down to P7 with Charles Leclerc, while Vettel was knocked out by Albon at the end of Q2.
Valtteri Bottas snatches the first pole position of 2020 (1'02''939), as Lewis Hamilton did not manage to beat him by a mere 0.012s. Although the Finn made a mistake and spun at the end of Q3, he came out on top after topping Q2 at Spielberg. Max Verstappen opens the second row, having signed the third best time ahead of an impressive Lando Norris in fourth. Alex Albon clocked the 5th best time, fending off a strong Sergio Perez on Racing Point. Ferrari turned out to be the biggest disappointment of the session as Sebastian Vettel did not make it to Q3, whereas Charles Leclerc finished in P7, opening the fourth row. Carlos Sainz, Lance Stroll and Daniel Ricciardo round up the Top-10.
Q2
Tight contention to the max in Q2. Valtteri Bottas was quickest (1’03’’015) ahead of Lewis Hamilton. Alex Albon went 3rd as a result of a late improvement right before the checkered flag, which knocked Vettel out of the Top 10. Ferrari’s struggles swiftly surfaced throughout Q2, as Charles Leclerc miraculously made it to Q3 in P10. McLaren and Racing Point shine bright with an incredible Lando Norris up to P4 (+0.804) ahead of Sergio Perez and Lance Stroll. Carlos Sainz clocked the 7th best time, 0.956s off the pace, but managed to finish ahead of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo.
Eliminated: Vettel, Gasly, Kvyat, Ocon and Grosjean.
Q1
Strong signals from Red Bull in the early stages of qualifying, as Verstappen clocked Q1’s fastest laptime in the closing minutes of the session. Valtteri Bottas had the upper hand on teammate Lewis Hamilton by 0.087s. Lance Stroll took Racing Point up to P4 ahead of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz. The Ferrari-Racing Point close fight repeated itself woth Perez fending off Sebastian Vettel in P8 by just 0.011s.
Remarkably, the Top-10 drivers were enclosed in half a second, with AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly standing in 10th behind Daniel Ricciardo. Lando Norris closed Q1 in P11, just three thousandths of a second off Gasly. Alex Albon set a best time of 1’04’’661, over six tenths off Max Verstappen.
Eliminated: Magnussen, Russell, Giovinazzi, Raikkonen and Latifi.
