#EmiliaRomagnaGP Qualifying: @ValtteriBottas pips @LewisHamilton to pole. #F1 #ImolaGP

Valtteri Bottas snatched pole position from Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton in qualifying at the Emilia Romagna GP, with Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen third and surviving a Q2 elimination scare.

Both Mercedes drivers and Verstappen will start the Grand Prix on the C3 yellow-marked medium compounds, giving them the strategy advantage over the rest of the top ten runners for Sunday’s race.

It was advantage Hamilton in the initial Q3 runs on the C4 soft tyres, with his 1:31.781 putting the Briton 0.031 seconds clear of Bottas despite dipping his rear wheels into the gravel exiting the final corner.

But Bottas fought back in the second flyers, beating Hamilton to the quickest time in the first sector by 0.1 seconds, then holding on to clinch pole position by a narrow 0.097 seconds.

Verstappen ended up third and 0.567 seconds adrift of Bottas’ Emilia Romagna GP qualifying benchmark time, with Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly claiming an impressive fourth.

Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo completed the top five and in-front of Red Bull Racing’s Alexander Albon who had a tough qualifying session suffering a spin and exceeding track limits – something that applied to several drivers in the field.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was seventh in the Scuderia’s third home race for the 2020 campaign, and ahead of Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Daniil Kvyat who qualified eighth and the two McLaren drivers of Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz who rounded out the top ten.

In the second qualifying stage, Racing Point’s Sergio Perez was eliminated when Albon jumped up the order on his final hot lap, after the Thai-Briton switched from medium to soft rubber following a spin at the exit of the Variante Alta Chicane.

The other Renault of Esteban Ocon qualified 12th and in-front of Williams Racing’s George Russell, who was provisional 11th until he was relegated a couple of positions.

But Russell will start ahead of Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel after the German lost his best effort in the middle segment, his last flying lap, for a lap invalidation at Variante Alta – after he took an attempt to progress through on a set of C3 medium compounds in the early stages of Q2 running.

BWT Racing Point F1 Team’s Lance Stroll also had his lap time deleted after running wide at Variante Alta, but it was not his personal best effort in Q2, and the Canadian wound up 15th.

In the first qualifying stage, Bottas and Albon only moved up the order on their final hot laps after losing earlier efforts due to exceeding track limits at the exit of Piratella corner in the middle sector, while Hamilton lost what would have been Q1’s best time for the same infringement late-on.

Haas F1 Team pairing Romain Grosjean and Kevin Magnussen were highest Q1 eliminatees, qualifying 16th and 17th respectively, with the latter running wide into the gravel trap out of the second Rivazza corner.

Alfa Romeo Racing’s Kimi Raikkonen was 18th, who lost a lap time that was good enough for Q2, after running wide at Variante Alta Chicane – although the Finn said over the radio his “left wheels were over the kerbs”.

Williams Racing’s Nicholas Latifi and Alfa Romeo Racing’s Antonio Giovinazzi (home race hero) brought up the rear.

You can see the full Formula 1 Emirates Emilia Romagna Grand Prix Qualifying Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2020/races/1057/italy/qualifying.html

The Top Three

Pole Position – Valtteri Bottas, #77, Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport, F1 W11 EQ Power+:

“Really enjoyed this track, it’s beautiful. I knew I had to improve in the last lap and I found such small gains. I risked it and the car turned in nicely. It’s one of the longest runs into Turn 1 so no doubt Lewis and Max will be chasing me…”

2nd – Lewis Hamilton, #44, Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport , F1 W11 EQ Power+:

“Valtteri did a great job and I had a pretty poor lap. You can’t always get them all. It’s such a beautiful track, to drive it’s quite messy. It might be hard to overtake tomorrow as it’s quite narrow.”

3rd – Max Verstappen, #33, Aston Martin Red Bull Racing-Honda, RB16:

“With the trouble, it was a bit tricky. It doesn’t give you a good reference in Q3, and there was not a lot of grip. At the end of the day P3 isn’t bad but I personally expected to be able to fight them a little bit more.”

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