Valtteri Bottas has bounced back from his chassis destroying crash at Imola to take pole position for the Portuguese Grand Prix. It was a front row lock out for Mercedes-AMG Petronas F1 with Lewis Hamilton alongside. The pair separated in qualifying by a mere 7/1000ths of a second. The result saw Lewis Hamilton remains on 99 F1 career pole positions.

“We worked hard to figure out the issues I was experiencing in qualifying, we put things right and this is the result. It’s more like how it should be, so I’m happy,” Valtteri told Mercedes-AMG Petronas Media. “In the first two races, I knew the speed was there, but my main issue was tyre warm-up. We’ve put a lot of focus on that, we learned some lessons and I always knew our hard work would pay off. The key was to stay calm, execute the plan and focus on the small details, particularly on the out-laps.

We’ve been stronger than expected which is a positive surprise but it’s only qualifying, I’m already thinking about tomorrow. We know the Red Bulls have a strong race car and we are expecting an epic battle.”

Lewis Hamilton admitted to some frustration at the conclusion of qualifying. The combination of buffeting winds and slow traffic made the task of maximising the performance from the car more of a lottery than the norm.

“Not that enjoyable of a session because I couldn’t get that many good laps in but I’m not too frustrated, I only did one good lap and that was in Q2, “Hamilton explained to Mercedes-AMG Petronas Media. “Of course I’d have loved to put more good laps together but it was tricky out there. It’s a slippery track, the tyres are hard so you need to do multiple laps to put temperature into them and it’s quite a peaky balance – it works for a second and then falls away very quickly, it’s on a knife-edge.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez occupy the second row with Verstappen 3rd and Perez 4th. It was a disappointment for the Dutch driver, who had recorded a faster lap than Bottas only to see the time deleted for a track limit violation.

“Third is of course not what we wanted but it’s not too bad after I had a Q3 lap time deleted, which would actually have put us fastest even though I lost time with the snap at Turn 4.,” Verstappen said to Red Bull Media. “We struggled with the balance in Q1 and Q2 because of the track surface, and everyone is chasing grip, but we got to a decent level in Q3 so I don’t think we are too far off. It was really one of those sessions where you could end up in P1 or P3 out of the blue.” 

Disappointments were common throughout the field, perhaps none more so than the darkness felt by Daniel Ricciardo after failing to progress beyond Q1. The Australian later told reporters that he was at a loss to understand what had transpired in the session and still had to master the driving style required of the McLaren.

“It was a frustrating day. We’d had a positive day yesterday, so I wouldn’t have bet on this today. I’m not really sure where it went wrong yet, we’ll have to look at it this evening. Q1 goes very quickly and we just didn’t get any clean laps in. The Medium tyre felt pretty good, and I was pretty happy. Then the first lap on the Soft was a bit interrupted by traffic at the start of the lap, and the end of the lap was just a little bit messy. We tried to go again but the tyre fell away really quickly and we just didn’t have the pace,” Daniel said to McLaren media. “P16 is far from where I want to be, so I’ve just got to figure it out, get some sleep and wake up tomorrow ready to do better.

It’s certainly still trying to get out of an old style,” he added. “I’m still quite conscious of how I approach every corner, if you know what I mean. I felt like yesterday I made a good step towards that. I certainly felt comfortable yesterday, or more comfortable than a couple of weeks ago. That’s why to be standing here now is pretty dark.”

Andreas Seidl and McLaren engineers had planned to meet with Daniel later that evening to study the data and pinpoint the issues that had impacted on the Australian’s qualifying performance.

“Unfortunately, Daniel, after three good practice sessions when he felt a lot more comfortable in the car, couldn’t repeat the performance today in Q1, which unfortunately meant an early end to his qualifying. This evening, together with Daniel, we’ll analyse what happened,” Team principal Andreas Seidl told McLaren Media.

Not all was doom and gloom for everyone other than the pole sitter. Sebastian Vettel out qualified teammate Lance Stroll for the first time since moving to Aston Martin Cognizant and will start the Portuguese Grand Prix from 10th.

“I am feeling happier after that session,” Vettel told Aston Martin Media. “We are starting inside the top 10 and will be in the middle of a big fight for points. There is still a lot of hard work ahead of us, but things are starting to click for me and become a bit more automatic, which is helping me focus more on my driving. I am still learning about the car, but today I felt more comfortable. The conditions were tricky – despite the sunshine – and the gusts of wind were quite unpredictable and made the car feel quite light. My final lap in Q3 was not the best. The wind direction had changed again, and I lost some time as a result, which is costly when the midfield is so tight. Overall, though, it was a better session for me. Let’s see what we can do tomorrow.”

George Russell was another of the few drivers who ended the qualifying session satisfied with their performance. The Williams driver, like Bottas, had put aside thoughts of Imola to record the best qualifying result for the William team in many a year.

“It’s our best qualifying position in three years so I’m really proud,” George Russell told the media. “We all have our responsibilities, and as a team we did a really good job. “Tomorrow we’ve got to keep moving forward. We have a good race car — it’s fast on the straights, so let’s see what we can do.”

The top 10 qualifiers were; Bottas, Hamilton, Verstappen, Sainz, Ocon, Norris, Leclerc, Gasly, Vettel.

Photos: f1.com

RESULTS

Driver		Grid	Qual time
	V. Bottas Mercedes·#77	1	1:18.348
	L. Hamilton Mercedes·#44	2	1:18.355
	M. Verstappen Red Bull·#33	3	1:18.746
	S. Pérez Red Bull·#11	4	1:18.890
	C. Sainz Jr. Ferrari·#55	5	1:19.039
	E. Ocon Alpine·#31	6	1:19.042
	L. Norris McLaren·#4	7	1:19.116
	C. Leclerc Ferrari·#16	8	1:19.306
	P. Gasly AlphaTauri·#10	9	1:19.475
	S. Vettel Aston Martin·#5	10	1:19.659
	G. Russell Williams·#63	11	1:19.109
	A. Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo·#99	12	1:19.216
	F. Alonso Alpine·#14	13	1:19.456
	Y. Tsunoda AlphaTauri·#22	14	1:19.463
	K. Räikkönen Alfa Romeo·#7	15	1:19.812
	D. Ricciardo McLaren·#3	16	1:19.839
	L. Stroll Aston Martin·#18	17	1:19.913
	N. Latifi Williams·#6	18	1:20.285
	M. Schumacher Haas·#47	19	1:20.452
	N. Mazepin Haas·#9	20	1:20.912

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