#TurkishGP Qualifying: @Lance_Stroll claims shock maiden pole in wet and wild session. #F1

BWT Racing Point F1 Team’s Lance Stroll beat Red Bull Racing’s Max Verstappen to clinch a shock pole position in a wet and wild qualifying session at the Turkish GP.

Qualifying was heavily interrupted, with the first qualifying stage stopped for 45 minutes after rain increased following the opening ten minutes, and when it did resume again, it was immediately red-flagged for a second time when Haas F1 Team’s Romain Grosjean got stuck in the first corner gravel trap after spinning off.

Verstappen lead for the majority of the session, with Renault’s Esteban Ocon sitting on top of the time-sheets in the long Q1 delay after impressing during the first runs, but the Dutchman was caught out in Q3 by switching his full wets for intermediate rubber.

Verstappen’s initial Q3 flyer was a 1:52.326, which was over two seconds slower than what he got to claim top spot in the middle qualifying stage, but the Red Bull driver looked to be going even quicker with two purple sectors on his next hot-lap.

But Verstappen aborted that run after Racing Point’s Sergio Perez jumped to the P1 slot with a 1:52.037 using the green side-walled intermediate compounds, so the former reacted and switched to that tyre.

Although Verstappen found time in the closing stages of Q3, the Dutchman was not in command as he was before, as Perez and Racing Point looked to be the favourites to claim pole position.

However, Perez who spun on his next flyer after taking P1, was eventually relegated to third after team-mate Stroll, who emerged on the full wets early on in Q3 taking a different approach to the Mexican, posted a 1:47.765 to claim pole.

Verstappen was stuck and needed to find a way past Alfa Romeo Racing’s Kimi Raikkonen before his last hot-lap, where he moved from third to second, but ended up 0.029 seconds adrift of Stroll’s Turkish GP qualifying pole time.

The other Red Bull of Alexander Albon qualified in fourth place and in-front of Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo, who remained on the full wets for the entirety of Q3.

Championship leader Lewis Hamilton was sixth in his Mercedes, having been behind team-mate Valtteri Bottas throughout the initial and second qualifying stages, along with the first runs in the final session.

But after Mercedes called it’s drivers to come in for a switch to intermediates, Hamilton improved on his effort more, as Bottas posted a personal best on his final flying lap but wound up ninth.

Renault’s Ocon and Alfa Romeo’s Raikkonen ended up ahead of Bottas, with Alfa Romeo Racing’s Antonio Giovinazzi completing the top ten.

Q2 had an uninterrupted session throughout, with drivers finding improvements with each hot-lap they set.

Verstappen was flying at the front, lapping two seconds quicker than the entire field, while Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN reached Q3 for the first time in the 2020 campaign.

All of the drivers that were eliminated posted personal best efforts on their final flyers, but could not improve enough, with McLaren’s Lando Norris qualifying in 11th.

Norris and team-mate Carlos Sainz both ran with the intermediates at the start of the middle qualifying stage, but switched for full-wets ahead of their final hot-laps.

It took the pairing into the two minute mark, but were still massively behind the top ten cutoff, as Norris wound up almost 0.7 seconds off of Ricciardo,

Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel was 12th and in-between the McLaren duo with the German’s team-mate Charles Leclerc also knocked out in Q2 and was 8.931 seconds adrift of Stroll’s Turkish GP Qualifying benchmark, despite showing promising pace in the dry practice running yesterday and P2 in the earlier Free Practice 3 session.

Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly ended up 15th despite a late stop in the pits to take on a fresh set of full wet tyres, while Sainz faces a post-qualifying investigation for potentially impeding Perez during one run in the Q2 session.

In the first qualifying segment, Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen was eliminated in 16th after the Dane was caught up in a few incidents after the second red flag, with one Scuderia AlphaTauri’s Daniil Kvyat spinning at turn three, which costed the Haas driver the opportunity to get into Q2 as he complained of poor visibility.

Kvyat therefore qualified 17th, and in-front of Williams Racing’s George Russell, who also lost time running behind the incidents after the session resumed for it’s second time – with the other cause being Nicholas Latifi who spun off exiting the turn eight middle apex and beached with Mercedes-powered FW43 racer in the outside gravel trap.

Russell will start at the rear of the field after replacing his power-unit components, which will give Grosjean and Latifi a one-spot promotion from P19 and P20.

Verstappen and Albon lead the first qualifying stage with the only times under two minutes – as they lapped at the front of the pack after the session resumed for the second time, ahead of the two incidents taking place in their midst.

All laps completed by the drivers passing the waved yellow flags for Kvyat’s spin and Latifi’s beached FW43 Williams racer are currently being investigated, which could potentially change the grid order for the Grand Prix.

There was also a bizarre incident, which occurred at the start of Q2 where the session was allowed to start despite Latifi’s Williams being taken away.

You can read the full Formula 1 DHL Turkish Grand Prix Qualifying Results Classification at the link:

In the earlier FP3 session, it was Verstappen who clean-swept all-practice sessions taking P1, ahead of Ferrari’s Leclerc with Red Bull team-mate Albon third, Renault’s Ocon fourth and McLaren’s Norris completing the top five.

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