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Mercedes' Valtteri Bottas will start tomorrow's 70th Anniversary Grand Prix on pole position after beating teammate Lewis Hamilton to pole by 0.063 of a second. Racing Point's Nico Hulkenberg will start tomorrow's race in third.
Hulkenberg led early on in Q1, as Geroge Russell stayed ahead of the two Haas cars. The AlphaTauri's of Pierre Gasly and Danill Kvyat looked confident, setting times good enough for fifth and seventh.
The stewards put Esteban Ocon under investigation for impeding Russell as Hamilton topped the times, breaking into the 1:26's for the first time in the session. Sebastian Vettel struggled in the first part, falling as low as thirteenth.
Kvyat was knocked out of the session after his final time was deleted for exceeding track limits, while Russell scraped through yet again into Q2. finishing the first session in fifteenth.
Medium and hard compound tyres were the preferred option for drivers as Q2 got underway as Bottas set the early pace with a 1:25,785. Max Verstappen, on hard tyres, went fourth fastest.
Hulkenberg went wide at Chapel, dropping him to eleventh. Vettel initially stayed on the edge of elimination with his first lap in tenth, while Ferrari teammate Charles Leclerc achieved fourth on his first run.
Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo will start in fourth and fifth, as Lance Stroll and Gasly will line up in sixth and seventh.
Vettel once again failed to get through to Q3 despite being on the soft tyres to finish twelfth, McLaren's Carlos Sainz and Renault's Esteban Ocon joining him on the sidelines.
Hulkenberg pulled off a quick lap to go second, splitting the Mercedes as Pierre Gasly just scraped into Q3.
It was Hamilton on provisional pole from teammate Bottas at the start of Q3, with Renault's Ricciardo a second back in third, which he set on the medium compound tyres.
Bottas snatched pole from Hamilton by six-hundredths of a second to take his second pole of the season, while Hulkenberg finished off an impressive qualifying session to take third.
Leclerc and Alexander Albon qualified in eighth and ninth, as Lando Norris will start in tenth position.
Grand Prix of Belgium
C. Sainz jr
Replies (2)
Login to replyabhidbgt
Posts: 283
I won't mind if this grid remains the same at the end of the race. Let Nico get this podium. Tremendous job by him. Sebastian may be slower than Leclerc but he never looked 0.6 second slower before Silverstone. Renault and in particular Riccardio are fast, they definitely are better on this circuit. Gasly too has been quite good.
Snooky
Posts: 121
Seems to be a lot of mixed feels about that result by the Hulk, everyone happy to see him do well after what happened but annoyed it’s in the RP