#TurkishGP Qualifying: @LewisHamilton fastest, @ValtteriBottas takes pole. #F1
Lewis Hamilton, #44, left and Valtteri Bottas, #77, right, Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team, F1 W12 EQ Performance, Qualifying, Formula 1 Rolex Turkish Grand Prix 2021, Intercity Istanbul Park, Istanbul, Turkey. Image credit to Sutton Images. Bottas Turkish GP pole, 2021 Turkish GP Qualifying, Hamilton Qualifying Fastest.
Bottas Turkish GP Pole – Lewis Hamilton was fastest in qualifying, however Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas will start on pole for the Turkish GP, with the latter lining up on the front-row alongside Red Bull’s Max Verstappen as a result of Hamilton’s grid penalty for an engine change.
In a session, which was overcast throughout its entirety, with spots of rain falling in the opening segment, the drivers were able to run slicks for all of it, with all the top ten bar AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda progressing through Q2 on the more durable C3 yellow-marked medium compounds, which they will start Sunday’s Grand Prix on.
Hamilton had come into qualifying knowing he would drop ten places on the grid from wherever he qualified, with Bottas leading the way after the initial Q3 flyers had been completed setting a 1:23.071, with Hamilton 0.022 adrift of the Finn.
Hamilton then took a different approach to the rest of the final part of Q3, leaving his garage on a new set of C4 red side-walled softs with over five minutes left on the clock,
The world champion found time on his second hot-lap to jump in-front of Bottas with a 1:22.868, with the sessions best efforts in sectors two and three.
Hamilton then backed off ahead of completing another flying lap, before which Bottas and Verstappen had their second tours and sole attempts to knock the Briton off the top of the order.
Bottas was a narrow 0.005 seconds up on Hamilton by the end of sector two, but the Finn lost time to his Mercedes team-mate in the third and wound up 0.013 off.
Verstappen went through sector two 0.134 down on Hamilton and he too lost time in the final sequence and ended up 0.328 seconds down on his title-rival’s benchmark.
That remained Hamilton’s second Q3 hot-lap, as although his third attempt started with the quickest time in the opening sector, he lost it throughout the rest of the tour, at the end of which the Mercedes driver was already confirmed to be top of the time-sheets.
Scuderia Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc wound up fourth on his final Q3 flying lap, knocking AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly down to fifth as the latter lost time on his last attempt in sector three and could not improve.
Alpine F1 Team’s Fernando Alonso was sixth and in-front of Red Bull’s Sergio Perez who took seventh and McLaren’s Lando Norris in eighth place.
Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll made it through to the top ten shootout despite a late excursion into the turn one run-off area in Q2, ending the session in ninth and Tsunoda completed the top 10.
Leclerc’s late improvement meant the other Aston Martin AMR21 entry of Sebastian Vettel was demoted down to 11th following his personal best effort at the end of the second qualifying stage was only enough to briefly slot into tenth on the time-sheets.
Behind Vettel was Alpine’s Esteban Ocon (12th) and Williams Racing’s George Russell (13th), who was left regretting a wild slide off the track at the last corner on his final flying lap.
Russell had set two personal bests in sector one and two and was on course to challenge for a Q3 spot, but his successful attempts to catch the slides still put the Williams driver too wide and he backed off after returning to the track for the final push to the line.
Haas F1 Team’s Mick Schumacher scored his second qualifying stage appearance of his Formula One career on merit, taking 14th place – his best qualifying result so far – in-front of Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz, who did not set a time as he will start Sunday’s Turkish Grand Prix at the back due to his engine-change grid penalty.
Sainz did emerge right at the end of the middle segment to complete sectors on a sighting lap, helping team-mate Leclerc for a slipstream down the hill out of turn eight on the lap that sent the Monegasque-youngster into the top ten.
In Q1, the session began with the drivers queuing up at the end of pit-lane as the teams were concerned with the threat of rain that fell throughout the morning at Intercity Istanbul Park and at the start of the earlier FP3 session would return.
Spots of rain did fall during the opening proceedings, but did not get heavier so the intermediates were left in their tyre blankets and the drivers remained on softs throughout the initial qualifying stage, which was topped by Hamilton.
The world champion was one of several drivers to suffer off-track excursions and lap-times invalidated for exceeding track limits at the opening corner, with Verstappen, Sainz, Tsunoda and Haas F1 Team’s Nikita Mazepin all spinning out through the down-hill left-hand kink.
Once the threat of rain subsided, Sainz’s late improvement at the end of Q1 sent McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo out, after the Australian had completed his final hot-lap well before the chequered flag was waved and was relegated down as other rivals improved behind him.
The same happened to Williams Racing’s Nicholas Latifi, who was running near the top of the time-sheets earlier on, and Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi – the pairing eliminated in 17th and 18th respectively.
Alfa Romeo Racing’s Kimi Raikkonen could not get a personal best on his final Q1 flyer as he was knocked out a low 19th, only ahead of Mazepin, who did post his best effort on his last hot-lap, which was nonetheless the slowest lap in Q1.
You can see the full Formula 1 Rolex Turkish Grand Prix 2021 Qualifying Results Classification here at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2021/races/1078/turkey/qualifying.html
2021 Turkish GP Qualifying – The Top Three
2021 Turkish GP Pole Position – Lewis Hamilton, #44, Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team, F1 W12 EQ Performance, 1:22.868:
“The track is completely different – the track is totally awesome with the grip levels it is giving us. Great job by the team s, impressed with the performance. Tomorrow will be difficult, but I’ll give it everything. Not the easiest overtaking, and we are all on the same tyres as well. Hopefully we can give the fans a good race.”
2nd Place – Valtteri Bottas, #77, Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team, F1 W12 EQ Performance, 1:22.998:
“It was a good quali, was some good laps. Last lap I got some understeer but other than that, enjoyed it. I’ll focus on my own race tomorrow I think.”
3rd Place – Max Verstappen, #33, Red Bull Racing-Honda, RB16B, 1:23.196:
“The beginning was quite tricky with the conditions but compared to yesterday, we managed to turn it around quite well. Overall, quite a decent recovery compared to yesterday.”
In the earlier FP3 session it was AlphaTauri’s Gasly on top of the order and ahead of Red Bull pairing Verstappen and Perez who were second and third respectively with Scuderia Ferrari duo Sainz and Leclerc rounding out the top five. You can see the full Formula 1 Rolex Turkish Grand Prix 2021 Free Practice 3 Results Classification here at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2021/races/1078/turkey/practice-3.html
@TurkishGP FP2: @LewisHamilton quickest ahead of @CharlesLeclerc. #F1
#TurkishGP FP1: @LewisHamilton tops time-sheets ahead of @Max33Verstappen. #F1
