Marko Hanželic
After qualifying for GP of Portugal in Portimao, it is clear that both Mercedes drivers will start from the first starting line-up tomorrow, with Valtteri Bottas overtook his teammate by just seven thousandths of a second Lewis Hamilton. The second starting line is reserved for Red Bull, in the third are the surprises of these qualifications, Carlos Sainz in Esteban Ocon.
Q1 - Ricciardo and Stroll surprisingly among the five slowest
The first part of the qualifiers is, alongside the usual candidates for the last five places, which include team racers Haas, Williams in Alfa Romeo, this time brought an unpleasant surprise for Daniel Ricciard, which is not 42 thousandths of a second behind George Russell and finished qualifying in Q1, yet a place behind him found himself Lance Stroll, who this time lost an internal duel with Sebastian Vettl.
He set the fastest time in the first part of the qualifications Valtteri Bottas, za Ricciardo in Stroll however, the qualifications at the bottom of the table ended Latifi, Schumacher in mazepin. The Russian again lost an internal duel with the German, this time by half a second. Pri Red Bullu took care of some fear Sergio Perez, who drove into the sand but easily qualified for Q2.
Q2 - Sebastian Vettel after a long time in Q3, Russell ran out of hundreds
Veter made qualifications very difficult, which was also confirmed by the boss "Red bulls", Christian horner, who also explained that this is to blame for the worse times compared to the third free practice. Already in the first attempt, everything is at least partial denied Lewis Hamilton, which overtook all the competition by half a second with a time of 1: 17,9. On the other hand, it is after the first attempt Max Verstappen reached only the seventh time and was even nearby dangerous area.
It's in the second attempt Dutchman drove a little faster and with a time of 1: 18,6 pushed in front of his teammate in fifth place, but after the end of the second part of the qualifications they had to say goodbye Russell, who was only five hundredths of a second behind the tenth place, Giovinazzi, tsunoda in Raikkönen. Fernando Alonso he could have been the least satisfied with it all, since he is Or with took the fourth fastest time, and the second former world champion could have been in a much better mood Sebastian Vettel, which is the first time after Silverstone last year tasted the sweetness of the third part of the qualifications.
Q3 - Both Mercedes in front of both Red Bulloma
Even before the third part of the qualifications, we saw how different the racing teams of the leading teams are. While Mercedes found that soft tires did not add value, Max Verstappen was significantly faster with them than on mid-range tires, but after the first attempt in Q3 he still could not be in a good mood, as his time was deleted due to driving across racetrack boundaries.
The second attempt brought a very close decision right at the top. Valtteri Bottas with a relatively slow time of 1: 18,348 set the fastest time, followed by Lewis Hamilton, which is for Finn lagged only 7 thousandths of a second. In the next quick lap, neither of them managed to improve, and the same goes for both Red Bullthis racer, who finished third and fourth, with Verstappen overtaking Sergio Perez in the final moments of qualifying.
They will start in the third row tomorrow Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) and Esteban Ocon (Alpine), after them Lando Norris (McLaren) and Charles Leclerc (Ferrari). He finished in ninth place Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri) and completes the top ten Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin).
GP of Portugal, qualifications - results:
