After an emotional qualification of the Portuguese GP it was Lewis Hamilton who scored the pole position, with the time of 1.16.652. On the second we have Valtteri Bottas who in the last seconds was outperformed by his teammate, leading to him only getting P2 for tomorrows race. Max Verstappen scored P3 ahead of the Ferrari, Racing Point and his teammate. The rest of the top ten were: Leclerc at P4, Perez P5, Albon P6, Sainz P7, Norris P8, Gasly P9 and Daniel Ricciardo P10

During all 3 free practice sessions during the Portuguese GP it was Valtteri Bottas who set the fastest time on the track. The weekend in Portimao so far has brought a lot of interesting events, not only because it was the first time the GP was held at the Algarve International Circuit , but also because of crashes, fires and red flags. 

The qualifying was set began just a few hours after the FP3 was ended by a red flag, due to a broken drain cover at turn 14. Unfortunately, it was delayed by 30 minutes because of the ongoing   reparations of the drain.

In case you missed FP3 ...

This bit of drain damage caused problems on the exit of Turn 14 #PortugueseGP 🇵🇹 # F1 pic.twitter.com/GIaskIS3pZ

- Formula 1 (@ F1) October 24, 2020

Soon after the cameraman picked up two marshals inspecting another drain at the straight between turn 4 and 5. Fast enough another drain was being checked, most likely at Turn 7. Not a great look for the Algarve track. It seems surprising things like this are not being investigated on time by the organizers in FIA , since situations like this can turn dangerous. One of the drivers that know how dangerous it can be is for sure Romain Grosjean , who hit a drain cover during a practice session during the Malaysian GP at Sepang and was subsequently sent spinning and hit the wall in a high-G corner as a result . Also Jenson Button had his experience with the drains during the 2016 Monaco GP. 

After the 30 minutes delay the Q1 finally began. 

Q1 

In the first moments of the green light for Q1 most of the drivers went immediately onto the track. 

It was Sergio Perez who set the first leading time on the board - with 1.18.040 just ahead of Ocon and Ricciardo . Although at a certain moment of Q1 we've seen the Ferrari’s quite high up, it was soon back to the usual fights in the front - with the Mercedes, Red Bull, Racing Point, McLaren, Alpha Tauri and Renault in top 10. 5 minutes before the end of the session, the drivers in the drop-out zone were - Grosjean, Raikkonen, Russell, Magnussen and Latifi . During that time the top 3 was - Hamilton , with 1.16.828; Verstappen on 2nd and Bottason 3rd. After a hard battle for the P15, the drivers who did not get into Q2 were: Raikkonen, Giovinazzi, Grosjean, Magnussen and Latifi . The biggest star of the Q1 was definitely George Russell , who was able to push Raikkonen down and score the P15 to get into Q2 in his Williams . 

Q2

The first two team to get out during the green light for Q2 were Racing Point and Alpha Tauri , followed by the Mercedes, Ferrari, Norris of McLaren and Ricciardo of Renault . Soon after we had all of the drivers on track. It was Lance Stroll who set the first time, with 1.17.626. He very soon found himself going lower and lower on the leaderboard, being pushed by drivers like Bottas, Perez, Gasly, Albon, Ricciardo and Verstappen , ending up at P7 10 minutes before the end of Q2 . 5 minutes before the end of Q2, the drivers in the drop-out zone were: Ocon, Stroll, Kvyat, Vettel and Russell . The top 3 were Bottas, Hamilton and Verstappen . At the end, we briefly had a yellow flag when Daniel Ricciardo ended up in the gravel, but he was able to get out of it and get back on track. I have also avoided the drop-out zone. The drivers eliminated were Ocon, Stroll, Kvyat, Russel and Vettel, with Ferrari once again having difficulties and only one driver in Q3 . 

Q3

The first drivers to get out were Bottas, Hamilton, Leclerc and Verstappen , and soon after the rest of the grid joined in for the final part of qualifications. It was Valtteri Bottas at provisional P1 , with the time of 1.16.986. 5 minutes before the end of Q3, it was Bottas , Hamilton and Verstappen in the Top 3. It was eventually Lewis Hamilton who scored P1 with the time of 1.16.652, with Bottas at P2 and Max Verstappen at P3 . The rest who completed the top 10 were: Leclerc atP4, Perez P5, Albon P6, Sainz P7, Norris P8, Gasly P9 and Daniel Ricciardo P10 although he did not complete a time lap during the Q3. 

How things stand at the end of qualifying!

Just a tenth between the top two 🤏 #PortugueseGP 🇵🇹 # F1 pic.twitter.com/iXHoaTxNAw

- Formula 1 (@ F1) October 24, 2020