Lewis Hamilton beat his teammate Valtteri Bottas by a tenth of a second on his final run to secure pole position for the Portuguese Grand Prix. The Englishman looked to be on the backfoot throughout practice but found just enough to secure his ninety-eighth front row start.
Hamilton who is looking to surpass the record for the number of wins had looked to struggle to match Bottas who topped all three practice, he also continues his lead with the number of career pole positions. The world champion decided to do three runs at the end of Q3, but Bottas had only done a single run.
That decision was made as it became clear in practice that the tyres needed three laps to get into the correct operating window. Both drivers set there fastest laps on the slower medium tyre, which gave Hamilton the extra tenth of a second to secure pole, with him marching towards a seventh title.
Hamilton had been third following the first runs in Q3, but found a tenth over Bottas and two and a half over Max Verstappen to jump to fastest and secure pole number ninety-seventh. The Finn believes that in Q3 he should have also followed hamilton’s approach.
Red Bull’s Verstappen was slightly closer than in recent races, the Dutchman looked at one stage if he could have split the Mercedes in the final moments. He, however, will start the race on the medium tyre, which may give him an advantage. It was not repeated from the first part of the session, with Verstappen two and a half tenths off the pace.
Hamilton said, “I can’t tell you how hard that was today. Valtteri’s been so quick this weekend, he’s topped every session. So I’ve just been digging and digging and digging to find that extra time.”
Bottas added, “I went for one lap [on mediums], it was my decision as it worked well in Q2. But it might be that doing the two timed laps like Lewis was better.”
The start of qualifying was delayed by half an hour, while officials worked to repair and check drain covers around the Algarve circuit after one at Turn 14 had worked its way loose in the earlier final practice session.
Charles Leclerc put in a strong session for Ferrari, going fourth fastest however he still did not have the pace to challenge for pole position. Leclerc did manage to improve on his final run, pushing both Sergio Perez and Alex Albon down the order.
But the Monacan was a tenth faster than Perez, which might give Ferrari hope for Imola next weekend following two disappointing home races last month.
Albon needs to start delivering results after Red Bull warned he has effectively two races by Red Bull to prove he deserves to keep his seat for 2021. But he lapped nearly half a second slower than team-mate Verstappen in Q3, with two cars between them.
McLaren was seventh with Carlos Sainz, with his teammate Lando Norris three tenths behind in eighth, when main rivals Renault, appeared to underperform after recent strides up the order.
Pierre Gasly was ninth, last of the drivers in Q3 to set a time after Renaults Daniel Ricciardo spun off at the end of Q2 through the high-speed right of Turn 11 as he passed one of the Mercedes cars and his teammate Esteban Ocon.
The accident although light contact was made with the wall, meant Ricciardo played no further part in qualifying he will start tenth. Teammate Ocon missed out by a tenth, despite Ricciardo’s spin at Eleven when he went wide after he had ran out of grip and spun into the gravel.
He was able to return to the pits, but the team ran out of time trying to repair his rear wing in time for Q3.
Lance Stroll could only manage twelfth fastest, the Canadian half a second behind teammate Perez’s best time. Stroll starts ahead of Daniil Kvyat and George Russell, who made it through to Q2 once again and kept up his record of never being out-qualified by a team-mate in F1.
Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel continued to struggle; the four-time champion was slowest of those knocked out in Q2 in fifteenth. Vettel appearing not to find the performance in the tyres, going fourteenth on his first run before dropping to a tenth and a half behind Russell when the session ended.
Kimi Raikkonen was fastest of those knocked out in Q1, he missed out by two and three-quarters of a tenth and starts ahead of teammate Antonio Giovinazzi. The two Haas’s were eighteenth and nineteenth, with Romain Grosjean a tenth and a half ahead of Kevin Magnussen. Nicolas Latifi was twentieth.
