Portuguese Grand Prix – Qualifying: Bottas a hair’s breadth ahead of Hamilton

Q1: very tight gaps

The two Haas were the first to take to the track followed by the McLaren and Ferrari. The first references of this session quickly fell at the beginning of the session, dropping below 1:19 on the Portimao circuit.

All the drivers started on soft tires, despite the lack of performance observed on Pirelli’s red compound.

Charles Leclerc was the first to be caught out by the track limits, specifically at turn 4.

The Monegasque nevertheless managed to make a second run on the same tire.

At the start of Q1, Carlos Sainz held his own against the rest of the pack with ten minutes to go, before Lewis Hamilton unleashed his Mercedes to reclaim the top spot… which was invalidated after exceeding the curb at the first corner! The Briton quickly struggled with understeer on his second lap. However, he was still able to make it through to Q2.

Sergio Pérez was caught off guard at turn 4 and found himself going backwards into the gravel.

During this time, Valtteri Bottas achieved a 1:19:205 putting him at the top of the standings.

But Lando Norris pressed the accelerator to snatch the best lap from Mercedes: 1:18:794! The time gaps remained extremely close until the end of this Q1! Bottas regains the best time while Esteban Ocon climbs to fourth place!

The two Alpine made it to Q2 with Fernando Alonso in twelfth place. Sebastian Vettel made a comeback by taking eighth place with his Aston Martin!

Among the eliminated, huge disappointment for Daniel Ricciardo, whose McLaren failed to reach the sixteenth place. Follow Lance Stroll, completely off pace in his qualifying ahead of Nicholas Latifi and the two Haas of Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin.

Q2: nice surprises!

Almost all drivers went out with medium tires.

Max Verstappen wasted no time and set a time of 1:19:099. Not enough to secure a spot in Q3 qualifying.

As proof: Lewis Hamilton dips below 1:18: specifically, 1:17:968, the best time of the weekend!

The pneumatic choice seems complicated to make since many have tried, like Charles Leclerc, to qualify in Q3 with the yellow tires, not without difficulty. Lewis Hamilton delivered a real blow to the competition during this Q2. Valtteri Bottas is relegated to almost half a second.

Ferrari #16 driven by Leclerc did not give up and attempted a qualifying session on medium tires unlike his teammate Sainz who opted for soft tires. The latter did not improve on his ninth time.

The Ferraris were in trouble, and George Russell failed by 57 thousandths to reach the top 10, with the last occupant being Pierre Gasly. Esteban Ocon placed fourth, nice performance! Sebastian Vettel defeated the Indian sign by finally reaching Q3!

The list of eliminated drivers is as follows: George Russell precedes a very good Antonio Giovinazzi! Fernando Alonso finished thirteenth ahead of the last two of this Q2, namely Yuki Tsunoda and Kimi Räikkönen.

Q3: Mercedes on another planet

Mercedes and Ferrari hampered each other from the early stages, leading them to execute a second warm-up lap.

Max Verstappen, for his part, started directly with a flying lap, but went too wide at turn 4, canceling his lap automatically.

Mercedes has drawn a royal path to the pole position as Bottas slammed a superb 1:18:348, ahead of his teammate Hamilton by seven thousandths!

After the short break between two attempts, the two Mercedes gave us a funny surprise: they started off on medium tires! A rather unusual situation…

The Red Bull team did not take this risk, but Verstappen, completely adrift, did not have the slightest chance of securing a second pole position this season.

Valtteri Bottas secures his first pole position of the season. A performance that contrasts with his nightmare weekend at Imola. Lewis Hamilton completes the Mercedes one-two ahead of the Red Bulls of Verstappen and Perez. Special mention to Esteban Ocon who climbs to sixth place with his Alpine! The other Frenchman, Pierre Gasly, finishes ninth ahead of Vettel.