Eifel Grand Prix – Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas rose to the occasion to snatch pole position ahead of Lewis Hamilton at the Nurburgring.
Click here for the complete results from Qualifying – 2020 Eifel Grand Prix.
Valtteri Bottas has taken pole position for Sunday’s race at the Nurburgring. The Mercedes man put in a 1:25.269 on his final flying lap in Q3 to snatch the outright fastest time by 0.3 over Lewis Hamilton, and pushing Max Verstappen down to P3. The Red Bull driver had been on provisional pole position after the first runs, after topping the times outright in Q1, but fell back on the final runs as the two Merc drivers improved.
Bottas, who won last time out in Russia, thus snatched pole by quarter of a second from Hamilton, with the Mercs locking out the front row for their home event in Germany.
Verstappen heads the second row ahead of a stellar effort from Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc. The Monegasque has looked convincingly quick throughout the sole practice session on Saturday morning, and made it into Q3 to eventually wind up P4 and 0.766 away from the front.
Alex Albon was P5 in the second Red Bull RB16, half a second away from the pace of his teammate, but eclipsed the efforts of both Renault drivers Daniel Ricciardo and Esteban Ocon in P6 & P7 respectively. They were split by just 0.019 seconds.
Lando Norris was P8 for McLaren, with Sergio Perez in P9 for Racing Point. Carlos Sainz finished P10 for McLaren.
Sebastian Vettel was knocked out in Q2 in P11, as the Ferrari driver failed to make Q3 for the seventh consecutive race. Pierre Gasly claimed P12 for Alpha Tauri, just ahead of teammate Daniil Kvyat in P13. Antonio Giovinazzi was P14 for Alfa Romeo, making it into Q2 for the first time this season – good timing from the Italian as his seat for 2021 looks under increasing threat. Kevin Magnussen was the final driver knocked out in Q2 as he finished P15 for Haas.
Knocked out in Q1 were Romain Grosjean for Haas in P16, George Russell and Nicholas Latifi for Williams in P17 & P18 respectively, while the back row is made up of Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen in P19 and ‘super-sub’ Nico Hulkenberg in P20. The German is standing in for the ill Lance Stroll this weekend, and was brought in so late that he couldn’t take part in third practice. As a result, his first laps of the weekend where his qualifying times. He finished 1.7 seconds away from the front in Q1 and was knocked out as a result.
