Bottas Breaks His Pole Drought in Turkey as Hamilton Set to Start at 11th for Sunday’s F1 Race

Lewis Hamilton dodged his F1 rival Max Verstappen and teammate Valtteri Bottas’ threats to secure his fourth pole position of the season at the Turkish GP.

However, considering the impending engine penalty, the Briton will be starting the race from P11 whilst Bottas will leap up a place to take the first spot on the grid. Verstappen will also move onto the front row while Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc will start from P3.

Pierre Gasly, who had the P3 in his sight through most parts of Q3, only managed to gain P4, ultimately. Fernando Alonso will start from P5 ahead of the other struggling Red Bull driver, Sergio Perez.

Q3 – Battle for Turkish GP pole

Bottas secured a provisional pole by putting up an impeccable lap time of 1:23:071, 0.02s ahead of his teammate. Meanwhile, Verstappen ended up 0.2s behind the Mercedes duo. Gasly continued to show off the blistering power of Honda to claim P4 ahead of Red Bull’s Perez.

The sun finally popped out at the right time amidst tire temperature struggles for the drivers. And the final run was always prone to witness a lot of mix-ups. Rightfully so, Hamilton posted a safe lap time of 1:22:868 to go P1. And it ended up being too safe for Verstappen and Bottas to compete against.

Q2 – Russell snaps as both AlphaTauri F1 drivers join the top 10

14 drivers hit the track, with Sainz opting not to take part in Q2 amidst his engine penalty. Bottas set the fastest lap using Hamilton’s tow – 1:24:142. The stewards deleted Hamilton’s lap time due to track limits. But, in his very next lap, he put up the fastest lap on board with a 1:3:595.

Meanwhile, Alonso was looking in prime form to secure a provisional P5. Also, both the AlphaTauri drivers managed to make it into Q3. But drivers like Vettel and Russell? Not so lucky.

Vettel held onto P11 ahead of Ocon and Russell, who put together a blistering lap only to mess it all up on the final turn. Schumacher claimed P14 for Haas in his best-ever qualifying position ahead of Sainz; the Spaniard will drop down to the back of the grid.

Q1 – Ricciardo out as Schumacher secures his first Q2 appearance

All the 20 cars queued up at the pit lane exit with 2 minutes to go as rain threat was looming large over the circuit. Hence, the first lap was going to be the one for the entire grid.

With the track being a bit too damp for slicks, many, including Verstappen and Sainz, had their spins. Meanwhile, Hamilton had his lap time deleted for exceeding the track limits around turn 1. But, the expected rain never arrived, as the drivers were setting lap times much relaxedly.

And after the thrilling Q1, it was Ricciardo, who ended up as one of the bottom 5 drivers. The Australian only managed P16 ahead of Latifi, Giovinazzi, Raikkonen, and Mazepin. Schumacher, shockingly, made his way into Q2 for only the second time in his Formula 1 career.

Overall, an ecstatic session came to an end, and all that’s left now is the main event, scheduled at 3:00 PM local time at Istanbul Park on Sunday. So, who’s claiming what could be a crucial victory at the Turkish Grand Prix? Well, we’ll know in time.

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