Bottas Goes Through in Portimao

Valteri Bottas, Mercedes teammate to World Champion Lewis Hamilton outlasted the Brit to bring home pole position to his team for tomorrow's Grand Prix of Portugal in Portomao.

 

 

 

 

After rocky opening laps, points leader Max Verstappen came back on his last opportunity to post a fast lap, Previously on track, Max's fastest lap was deleted for exceeding track limits.

 

 Lewis Hamilton fought an oddly balanced car and was unable to squeeze any more out of the Mercedes and came home 2nd for the start tomorrow. 

 

 

 

 

Verstappen will start 3rd one spot ahead of teammate Sergio Perez. Next to roll of will be Carlos Sainz in the first Ferarri, outqualifying his teammate Charles LeClerc for the first time. 

 

 

The interesting mid-pack battle rages on. 

Predictably out after Q1 were both Haas cars, but other mid pack teams split into Q2.

Mr. Saturday, George Russel keeps his streak alive, putting his chunky Williams into Q2 again. Nicolas Latifi was unable to move his Williams out of Q1. Probably the biggest disappointment for the mid pack squabble was Daniel Riccardo who failed to move out of Q1. His abscence allowed other mid pack cars to get into Q2 besides Russel, but only getting as far as Q2 were the Alfa Romeos of Giovannizi and Raikkonen. Also out in Q2 were the Alpha Tauri of rookie Yuki Tsunoda and the Alpine of Fernando Alonso.

Sebastian Vettel has seen improvement in the Aston Martin, with his efforts moving him into Q3 for the first time, outqualifying his teammate Lance Stroll, Vettel will roll off P10.

With the highest mid pack team qualifying 5th, with the Ferrari of Sainz, the pack is mixed for the start tomorrow:

P1    Bottas

P2    Hamilton

P3    Verstappen

P4    Perez

P5    Sainz

P6    Ocon

P7    Norris

P8    LeClerc

P9    Gasly

P10    Vettel

Looking forward to tomorrow!

-katykarter