Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix: Bottas claims pole at Imola
Valtteri Bottas will start from pole in Sunday’s Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix at the famous Imola circuit in Italy.
Valtteri Bottas secured his fourth pole position of the 2020 Formula 1 World Championship season ahead of Mercedes teammate Lewis Hamilton in qualifying for the Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix.
Bottas will start at the head of the pack at Imola on Sunday with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen directly behind him.
Gasly makes a statement
Alpha Tauri’s Pierre Gasly made a statement by outqualifying Red Bull’s number two Alex Albon who will start from sixth on the grid. Gasly feels passed over by Red Bull.
“I’m not disappointed, I will say I’m just surprised,” he said on Friday 30 October. “In 14 years, Seb [Vettel] won a race with Toro Rosso, I’m the only other driver who won a race. Seb got promoted to Red Bull and won four titles with the team. So I’m just surprised I was not really considered.”
Verstappen was far from pleased with the performance of his Red Bull but said P3 ‘wasn’t too bad’.
“It wasn’t a great qualifying because of the issue, we didn’t have a lot of laps. We definitely seemed to struggle a bit but P3 isn’t bad,” Verstappen said after qualifying.
Bottas clocked a 1:13.609 on his final flying lap to snatch pole from Hamilton, who had put up a 1:13.781, and wasn’t pleased with his time.
“Valtteri did a great job. It was a pretty poor lap from myself. These things happen you can’t always get it perfect.
“But what a beautiful place we’re in here in Italy and the track is unbelievable, the speeds that we’re going around this track. Grateful top be here and grateful for the performance we have, which is really remarkable.
“It feels better than it did in the last race. It was a real challenge out there, I enjoyed it.”
Bottas anticipates an intense start to the race at Imola which sports one of the longest runs into turn one on the Formula 1 circuit.
“It’s going to be a good fight. It’s one of the longest runs in the calendar into Turn One. No doubt Lewis and Max will be chasing me, but it’s a good place to start.”
Emilia-Romagna Grand Prix qualifying results
| POS | NO | DRIVER | CAR | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | LAPS |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | MERCEDES | 1:14.221 | 1:14.585 | 1:13.609 | 22 |
| 2 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | MERCEDES | 1:14.229 | 1:14.643 | 1:13.706 | 22 |
| 3 | 33 | Max Verstappen | RED BULL RACING HONDA | 1:15.034 | 1:14.974 | 1:14.176 | 16 |
| 4 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | ALPHATAURI HONDA | 1:15.183 | 1:14.681 | 1:14.502 | 19 |
| 5 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | RENAULT | 1:15.474 | 1:14.953 | 1:14.520 | 18 |
| 6 | 23 | Alexander Albon | RED BULL RACING HONDA | 1:15.402 | 1:14.745 | 1:14.572 | 21 |
| 7 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | FERRARI | 1:15.123 | 1:15.017 | 1:14.616 | 20 |
| 8 | 26 | Daniil Kvyat | ALPHATAURI HONDA | 1:15.412 | 1:15.022 | 1:14.696 | 21 |
| 9 | 4 | Lando Norris | MCLAREN RENAULT | 1:15.274 | 1:15.051 | 1:14.814 | 17 |
| 10 | 55 | Carlos Sainz | MCLAREN RENAULT | 1:15.528 | 1:15.027 | 1:14.911 | 19 |
| 11 | 11 | Sergio Perez | RACING POINT BWT MERCEDES | 1:15.407 | 1:15.061 | 16 | |
| 12 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | RENAULT | 1:15.352 | 1:15.201 | 14 | |
| 13 | 63 | George Russell | WILLIAMS MERCEDES | 1:15.760 | 1:15.323 | 18 | |
| 14 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | FERRARI | 1:15.571 | 1:15.385 | 20 | |
| 15 | 18 | Lance Stroll | RACING POINT BWT MERCEDES | 1:15.822 | 1:15.494 | 16 | |
| 16 | 8 | Romain Grosjean | HAAS FERRARI | 1:15.918 | 10 | ||
| 17 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | HAAS FERRARI | 1:15.939 | 11 | ||
| 18 | 7 | Kimi Räikkönen | ALFA ROMEO RACING FERRARI | 1:15.953 | 10 | ||
| 19 | 6 | Nicholas Latifi | WILLIAMS MERCEDES | 1:15.987 | 12 | ||
| 20 | 99 | Antonio Giovinazzi | ALFA ROMEO RACING FERRARI | 1:16.208 | 8 |
Q1 107% time – 1:19.416