F1 Qualifying Report – Verstappen beats Vettel to Brazilian GP Pole

 

 

Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen clinched his second-career pole position in qualifying at the Brazilian GP outpacing Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel by 0.123 seconds.

 

Verstappen grabbed provisional pole on his initial stint with a benchmark of a 1:07.623 and was only 0.008 quicker than Vettel after running wide out of the Pinheirinho left-hand corner on the infield section.

 

On his final flyer, Verstappen improved a touch more to set the 1:07.508 Brazilian GP pole position time as Vettel failed to improve on his effort.

 

Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton moved to third at the end of the Q3 qualifying stage, lapping 0.191 adrift of Verstappen’s Brazilian GP pole benchmark and relegated Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc to fourth.

 

Leclerc however, is hit with a ten-placed grid penalty for an engine change and will start the Brazilian GP in 14th, assuming no other penalties are applied.

 

The Monegasque-youngster was the only driver to use C2 mediums in the second qualifying stage so he can start on that set of rubber whilst the rest of the top 10 will start on softs.

 

The second Mercedes of Valtteri Bottas qualified fifth after failing to improve on his final hot lap, whilst Red Bull Racing’s Alexander Albon completed the top six and 0.427 seconds off of team-mate Verstappen’s Brazilian GP pole benchmark.

 

Toro Rosso’s Pierre Gasly won the battle of the midfield by qualifying in seventh and was narrowly 0.007 quicker than Haas F1 Team’s Romain Grosjean who was eighth.

 

Alfa Romeo Racing’s Kimi Raikkonen took ninth with the other Haas of Kevin Magnussen rounding out the top ten 1.529 seconds adrift of Verstappen’s Brazilian GP pole benchmark.

 

McLaren’s Lando Norris was the quickest of those eliminated in the second qualifying stage and was 11th, missing out on a Q3 appearance by one hundredth of a second.

 

Renault F1 Team’s Daniel Ricciardo and Nico Hulkenberg qualified in 12th and 14th respectively with Alfa Romeo Racing’s Antonio Giovinazzi sandwiched in-between the pairing taking 13th with the latter spinning on his final flyer and failed to improve.

 

SportPesa Racing Point F1 Team’s Sergio Perez remained the slowest of the Q2 runners and wound up 15th.

 

Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat was the quickest of the Q1 eliminatees taking 16th and in-front of Lance Stroll who was 17th in his Racing Point RP19.

 

The two ROKiT Williams Racing FW42’s of George Russell and Robert Kubica qualified in 18th and 19th respectively with McLaren’s Carlos Sainz starting at the rear after the latter was unable to post a lap time due to a power unit issue.

 

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Brazilian GP Qualifying – The Top Three

 

Pole Position – Max Verstappen, #33, Aston Martin Red Bull Racing-Honda, RB15: “The car was really good, the track temperature was changing and we had to adjust a little bit for that, but the car was flying. Really happy with pole position.”

 

2nd – Sebastian Vettel, #5, Scuderia Ferrari, SF90: “I had a bit of a wobble on the exit on the first run, but I think Max improved his time so fair play – it’s his pole position. Let’s see what we can do tomorrow.”

 

3rd – Lewis Hamilton, #44, Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport, F1 W10 EQ Power+: “Congrats to Max, a great lap by him. We seemed quite competitive in Q3 and then we seemed to lose or they gained. We’ve been down on power compared to the others, but gave it everything I had.”

 

 

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Formula 1 Heineken Grande Premio Dos Brasil 2019 Provisional Starting Grid

 

POS	DRIVER	CAR	TIME	GAP
1	Max Verstappen	Aston Martin Red Bull Racing-Honda	1m07.508s	–
2	Sebastian Vettel	Scuderia Ferrari	1m07.631s	0.123s
3	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport	1m07.699s	0.191s
4	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes AMG Petronas Motorsport	1m07.874s	0.366s
5	Alexander Albon	Aston Martin Red Bull Racing-Honda	1m07.935s	0.427s
6	Pierre Gasly	Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda	1m08.837s	1.329s
7	Romain Grosjean	Haas F1 Team	1m08.854s	1.346s
8	Kimi Raikkonen	Alfa Romeo Racing	1m08.984s	1.476s
9	Kevin Magnussen	Haas F1 Team	1m09.037s	1.529s
10	Lando Norris	McLaren-Renault F1 Team	1m08.868s	–
11	Daniel Ricciardo	Renault F1 Team	1m08.903s	–
12	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo Racing	1m08.919s	–
13	Nico Hulkenberg	Renault F1 Team	1m08.921s	–
14	Charles Leclerc	Scuderia Ferrari	1m07.728s	–
15	Sergio Perez	SportPesa Racing Point F1 Team	1m09.035s	–
16	Daniil Kvyat	Scuderia Toro Rosso-Honda	1m09.320s	–
17	Lance Stroll	SportPesa Racing Point F1 Team	1m09.536s	–
18	George Russell	ROKiT Williams Racing	1m10.126s	–
19	Robert Kubica	ROKiT Williams Racing	1m10.614s	–
20	Carlos Sainz Jr.	McLaren-Renault F1 Team	–	–

 

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In Free Practice 3, Hamilton was quickest by 0.26 seconds from Verstappen, Leclerc, Vettel and Albon completing the top five.

 

You can see the full Formula 1 Heineken Grande Premio Dos Brasil 2019 Free Practice 3 Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2019/races/1019/brazil/practice-3.html

 

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You can catch up on Friday’s running plus F1 Newsbites – Brazilian GP Edition, Red Bull & Toro Rosso driver market news as well as this weekend’s race preview at the following links:

 

#Vettel leads @ScuderiaFerrari 1-2 in red-flag affected #BrazilianGP FP2. #F1 #BrazilGP

 

@RedBullRacing’s @Alex_Albon tops dampened #BrazilianGP FP1 session despite crashing. #F1 #BrazilGP

 

#F1 Newsbites – #BrazilianGP Edition. @F1 #BrazilGP

 

@RedBullRacing confirm @alex_albon for 2020 and @ToroRosso retain @PierreGASLY & @kvyatofficial. #F1

 

#F1 @Heineken #BrazilianGP 2019 Preview. – @F1 #BrazilGP

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