#F1 #StyrianGP Qualifying: @LewisHamilton storms his @MercedesAMGF1 to pole.

Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton clinched pole position for the Styrian Grand Prix ahead of Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen in a wet and wild qualifying session at the Red Bull Ring in Austria.

McLaren’s Carlos Sainz took third with last weekend’s season-opening Austrian Grand Prix winner Valtteri Bottas putting his F1 W11 EQ Power+ Mercedes in fourth.

Despite worries of the whole day’s running being washed out due to heavy rain and thunderstorms following Free Practice 3’s cancellation, qualifying got running after a 45 minute delay as a break in the weather allowed the action to take place under the full wet blue-marked compounds.

As the rain-band activity continued to fluctuate throughout, meaning Q2 had the fastest times of all the three qualifying stages, but still came down to the final runs in Q3 as the standing water cleared from a late second segment drenching.

Hamilton sat on top of the time-sheets ahead of the final flyers but was under intense pressure from Red Bull’s Verstappen, who saved two huge snaps of oversteer as he wrestled his Honda-powered RB16 racer at turns six and eight on his last hot lap but could not save his slide upon the exit of the penultimate corner.

Although the Dutchman managed to avoid a full 360 degree spin, his chances of pole at Red Bull Racing’s home Grand Prix slipped away and Hamilton lowered his benchmark, posted a blistering 1:19.273, which was a solid 1.216 clear.

Sainz jumped into third, making it his best F1-career starting position, with Bottas qualifying fourth after a late-last improvement.

Renault’s Esteban Ocon completed the top five and was ahead of McLaren’s Lando Norris who qualified in sixth place with the latter being relegated to ninth on the starting grid after receiving a three-grid placed penalty for overtaking Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly and Racing Point’s Sergio Perez under waved yellows in FP1.

The second Red Bull of Alexander Albon took seventh and in-front of the aforementioned Gasly and Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo who was ninth.

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel was the slowest of the final segment runners in tenth in another disappointing showing for the Scuderia.

Behind the top ten drivers, Charles Leclerc became the second Ferrari pilot in a week to be eliminated in the second qualifying stage as the Monegasque-youngster failed to improve on his final flyers in Q2.

Leclerc requested to his team, that he wanted to remain out on track longer on his initial Q2 full wet rubber when it came to putting on another fresh set of the blue side-walled compounds for the final flyers, but when he did enter the pits, the rain got heavier and several drivers managed to improve late on.

The Ferrari driver was told to push on but his final lap was not enough as he wounded up 1.3 seconds down on his Q2 effort and qualified 11th as team-mate Vettel did last week.

Leclerc however, will start three places back in 14th for impeding Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Daniil Kvyat during Q2 at turns nine and ten.

Williams Racing’s George Russell scored an impressive 12th as the took the Grove based-squad into Q2 – something the team did not achieve last season – with a late improvement on fresh wet tyres in Q1.

Russell then set a strong early best effort in the second stage of qualifying, which assisted him to hold onto his high position as the rain caused havoc to Leclerc, also headaches to Racing Point’s Lance Stroll, AlphaTauri’s Kvyat and Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen.

Stroll looked as though he would improve on his final flyer, but after a strong start, the Canadian’s lap got slower as he went on and ran wide at the exit of turn nine costing him and qualified 13th.

When Q1 finally got underway, Vettel lead the queue out of pit-lane and it was a non-stop changing order as the drivers explored the rain-drenched Red Bull Ring.

Hamilton ended up fastest on the time-sheets in the initial qualifying stage, which was ended early after Alfa Romeo Racing’s Antonio Giovinazzi spun as he ran across the kerbs at the exit of the second to last corner, gliding into the barriers at the final turn.

The Italian was able to drive clear but dropped debris on the main straight and eventually parked his C39 on the approach to turn four – where Albon and Hamilton tangled in the closing stages of last weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix – which meant red flags were brought out and the session would not restart.

Several drivers were able to improve on the blue-branded fresh wets, with Alfa Romeo Racing’s Kimi Raikkonen and Racing Point’s Sergio Perez, heading those names failing to progress out of Q1 with the latter being the most-big exit of the eliminatees after topping the time-sheets in opening practice and third in FP2.

Unlike Russell, Williams Racing team-mate Nicholas Latifi, who took an excursion through the turn six gravel trap at the mid-point of Q1, was unable to improve on his new wet rubber as the red flags were waved as he approached the final few corners and will start 18th, in-front of the aforementioned Giovinazzi.

Haas F1 Team’s Romain Grosjean did not post a lap time in the first qualifying stage after going off at the fourth corner on his out-lap – just ahead of the approaching Vettel who was on his flyer in Q1 – and the Frenchman did re-emerge after returning to the pits after that incident.

You can see the full Formula 1 Grosser Preis Der Steiermark (Styrian Grand Prix) 2020 Qualifying Results Classification at the following link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2020/races/1046/austria/qualifying.html

Want to relive the action? Click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T-gwxLCKpEQ.

Catch up on what happened in yesterday’s Free Practice 1 and 2 sessions at the following links:

#F1 #StyrianGP FP2 Report: @Max33Verstappen quickest ahead of @ValtteriBottas.

#StyrianGP FP1 Report: @RacingPoint’s @SChecoPerez tops the time-sheets. #F1

Read this weekend’s Formula 1 Rolex Grosser Preis Der Steiermark (Styrian Grand Prix) 2020 Preview at the link:

#F1 @Rolex Grosser Preis Der Steiermark 2020 Preview. #StyrianGP.