Q1 already saw medium tyres, as both Haas drivers came out on the yellow-marked compound. Williams' Russell opted for this compound as well. The Silver Arrows set the pace, with Bottas having an edge of 56 thousandths of a second over his teammate. Hulkenberg continued his services for Racing Point, as Perez had again been tested positive for Covid-19 after his 10-day quarantine. The German showed impressive pace right away, jumping third and being only a tenth off the pace. A moment later Verstappen went fastest, but the flying Dutchman was only 0.021s faster than Bottas. Albon in the sister Red Bull hadn't been able to overcome his difficulties; he ended up going wide, which produced tame P13 for the Thai driver. A 1.3-second gap to your teammate is an unforgiving performance. It wasn't easy for the red-suited drivers, either. Charles was in decent P7, but Sebastian was only in P10. It was difficult to understand, that Sebastian was six tenths slower than his teammate! He hadn't made any visible mistakes during his flyer; it seemed, that he just couldn't extract any more pace out of his SF1000. With 5 minutes remaining, Sebastian was as low as in P13. Albon, too was in poor P16. However, the Red Bull driver managed to jump third in the closing stages of the first session. This time there was only a thousandth of a second separating the Red Bull drivers, surprisingly in favor of Albon! Two drivers to stand out of the crowd were AlphaTauri's Gasly and Williams' Russell, who made P5 and P8 respectively. Sebastian was left in P14 in the end, just barely making his way into Q2. Eliminated from the second session were AlphaTauri's Kvyat, Haas' Magnussen, Williams' Latifi and the Alfa Romeo duo of Giovinazzi and Räikkönen. What a poor start to the season Alfa Romeo have had! Neither one of the drivers has made it into Q2 this season! It really hurts me to see Kimi in such a poorly-powered car, as the Iceman would have potential for so much more!
Q2 saw all three tyre compounds in use. Mercedes sent both cars out on the medium tyre wear, whilst Red Bull opted for a risky call, sending Verstappen out on the white-walled hard rubber. Once again it was Bottas, who set the benchmark, which was four tenths quicker than his teammate's lap. In spite of the hard tyres, Max made it fourth in the time sheets. The Scuderia opted for the medium compound, similar to Racing Point, Renault and McLaren. Charles set a competitive lap time, which entitled the Monegasque to P4. Sebastian, on the other hand, failed to make it among the top ten. Russell in his Williams set his first lap time on the soft Pirellis, still unable to break into the top ten. To maximise his chances to make it among the top ten, Sebastian was forced to switch to the softs at the end of the session. But not even the fastest tyre compound guaranteed the German a place in the final session! The badly-struggling German had to settle for disappointing P12! Renault's Ricciardo and Red Bull's Verstappen sat out the second runs. Hulkenberg was absolutely on flames at the wheel of his "pink Mercedes", jumping second in the standings. Gasly, too kept up his impressive work, making it 4th. This time the biggest name casualty in Q2 was McLaren's Sainz, who was knocked out of Q3 together with Renault's Ocon, Haas' Grosjean and Williams' Russell. Charles prevented the Scuderia's day from turning into a completely shameful one by securing his place among the top ten.
Other tyres than the softs have rarely been seen in the last segment. Against the odds, this time both Red Bull drivers and Renault's Ricciardo rushed out on the medium tyres. Silverstone is known to be extremely hard on the tyres, and the soft compound lasts the entire flying lap only barely. Hamilton took provisional pole by a tenth to his teammate, whose first sector left a little to hope for. Ricciardo was making a superb job, making it third on his first flyer. However, the gap to pace-setting Hamilton was a massive second. Hulkenberg was fourth in his pink car, leaving Verstappen fifth and Albon sixth. P7 was the maximum, that Charles was able to reach. Although a 1.5-second gap to Hamilton was pretty catastrophic! Both Hamilton and Bottas came out on the mediums at the end of the session. The Red Bull drivers had an opposite strategy, as they switched to the soft compound for their final flyers. Ricciardo, on the other hand, decided to stick to the mediums. Hamilton managed to snatch some hundredths of a second off his lap time, but teammate Bottas robbed his teammate of the pole! The Finn's lap time was six hundredths faster than that of his teammate's! After the devastating race result last week, Bottas was absolutely determined to take what was his. Hulkenberg out-qualified his teammate Stroll by four tenths, which made Hulk third on the grid! That was an impressive result indeed. Verstappen completed the second row, with Ricciardo and Stroll on the third row. Gasly qualified 7th for AlphaTauri and Leclerc 8th for the Scuderia. Red Bull's Albon and McLaren's Norris will line up on the fifth row.
Verstappen will have the advantage in terms of tyre strategy, as he will start to the race on the hardest tyres. Although the required tyre pressures have been raised by the FIA, it's interesting to see, if there will be punctures in tomorrow's race. One thing is for sure: no team will try to make a one-stop strategy work! In spite of Hulkenberg's stunning P3, I consider Max as the strongest contender to fight for the last spot on the podium. Unfortunately my hopes are not high in terms of the Red Team's performance. At least I'm hoping to see an action-packed and eventful race!
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