F1 | Imola GP | Bottas pips Hamilton by 0.097s, Gasly shows promise in 4th
Imola enjoyed a thrilling qualifying session as it returns to the F1 calendar following a 14-year hiatus. Its last F1 poleman was Michael Schumacher in 2006 and now Bottas adds his name to the roll of honor.
Valtteri Bottas snatches pole position at Imola with a scorching 1’13’’609, beating teammate Lewis Hamilton by 0.097s. Max Verstappen finished 3rd fastest, after he endured a thrilling spark plug issue in Q2. Pierre Gasly emerges as the best of the rest in P4 in a close battle with Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo.
The Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari at Imola saw an exciting qualifying session, characterised by plenty of errors from many drivers. Q1 saw numerous laptime deletions due to track limits, including from Valtteri Bottas. Kimi Raikkonen missed out on Q2 owing to the same issue, being dropped from 15th to 18th. Antonio Giovinazzi will start from the 20th grid slot next to Nicholas Latifi. The two Haas drivers were eliminated as well, with Kevin Magnussen in P17 behind Romain Grosjean.
Max Verstappen’s car suffered a spark plug issue at the beginning of Q2, causing his mechanics to fix it in five minutes. The Dutchman was in for a second attempt and made it to Q3 on a set of Medium Tyres, whereas Ferrari could not join Red Bull and Mercedes in achieving a strong lap on the yellow-banded tyre to head to Q3.
Lance Stroll stands in P15, right behind Sebastian Vettel, whose latest laptime was deleted due to track limits. Therefore, George Russell got promoted to P13, one tenth off Esteban Ocon. Sergio Perez ended up in the drop zone of Q2, just 0.034s far from Q3.
Valtteri Bottas stunned Lewis Hamilton in his last attempt on the Santerno track, claiming pole position and a front row lockout for Mercedes. Max Verstappen enjoys yet another solid P3, ahead of an impressive Pierre Gasly, who has been showing promise since the beginning of the day.
Daniel Ricciardo will occupy the 5th slot on the grid, next to Alex Albon - nearly half a second off his teammate. Charles Leclerc extracts the maximum out of the SF1000 to qualify in 7th, 1.007s off the top and in line with Daniil Kvyat’s speed.
The McLaren duo rounds up the Top-10, as Lando Norris outqualifies future Ferrari driver Carlos Sainz.
🚨 Qualifying Classification 🚨
— Formula 1 (@F1) October 31, 2020
Some standout performances throughout the field 👏#ImolaGP 🇮🇹 #F1 pic.twitter.com/Twe7CB6x8a
