Q1 unravelled the usual way. Hamilton set the benchmark, which teammate Bottas proved unable to match. Verstappen in third, on the other hand, was only two thousandths of a second shy of Bottas. "The pink Mercedes" showed excellent performance as well, as Stroll jumped second, splitting the Silver Arrows. Only a moment later teammate Perez deprived his teammate of the second place. Ferrari's pace was still modest, especially in terms of Sebastian. Charles was 7th and Sebastian 11th. Both Racing Points sat out the second runs at the end of the session, but everyone else rushed out. It was a positive surprise to see Kimi's perky performance at the wheel of his Alfa Romeo. The Iceman made it into Q2 for the first time this season! Opposite to his teammate Giovinazzi, who was left at the very back of the pack. The pecking order of the backmarkers was quite straightforward; both Haas drivers and both Williams drivers were knocked out of the second session as well.
For the first time this season, everyone opted for the soft compound at the beginning of Q2. The pecking order remained the same; Hamilton kept his teammate under control, but this time by one tenth of a second only. Again Verstappen was third, half a second off the pace. Sainz in his McLaren was fourth and Perez in his "pink Mercedes" fifth. However, Charles jumped fifth, dropping Perez down to sixth. Sebastian was only 11th after his first attempt, massive 1.3s down on pace-setting Hamilton. Kimi was the only driver to come out on medium Pirellis at the end of the session. I was slightly amazed, how competitive the Iceman turned out. The Finn managed to out-qualify Renault's Ocon, qualifying in P14 on the grid. P14 can be seen as an excellent achievement, considering Alfa Romeo's lack of power and performance in general. The top three sat out the second runs, as the Mercedes duo and Red Bull's Verstappen had no need to go out for the second time. Sebastian again faced cruel destiny; he was knocked out of the last segment by two thousandths of a second, whilst teammate Charles made it among the top ten (P8). Sebastian was accompanied by AlphaTauri's Kvyat, the Renault duo of Ricciardo and Ocon and Alfa Romeo's Räikkönen. At the very end of the session Stroll jumped fourth and Gasly in his AlphaTauri fifth.
To my disappointment Q3 saw no changes in terms of the predicted pattern, which made the shootout for pole quite boring actually. Once again Hamilton laid his hands on provisional pole, but not as easily as in the first two sessions. Bottas had set the screens purple in first two sectors, but Turns 10 and 12 in the last sector proved difficult for the Finn, and he was 0.059s down on his teammate. Verstappen's gap to Hamilton had increased into seven tenths, and Perez in fourth was a second down on the Briton already. Charles in P7 was incredible 1.7s down on the Mercedes ace! Against the odds, the top five made no improvements on their last flyers. Predictably, Hamilton made it on pole again, with teammate Bottas making it another front row lockout for the Silver Arrows. Verstappen familiarly stood out of the crowd as "the best of the rest", with Perz fourth and teammate Stroll fifth. Albon in his RB16 made it 6th on the grid, leaving the McLaren duo of Sainz and Norris in P7 and P8. Charles and AlphaTauri's Gasly rounded out the top ten. Worth noting is the fact, that Albon's gap to teammate Verstappen, once again, was massive eight tenths. There are two drivers, who are in serious trouble with their teammates, and those are Albon and Sebastian.
I have to be honest and say, that I don't have high expectations for tomorrow's race. My prediction is, that Hamilton wins the race, Bottas finishes as the runner-up, and Max completes the podium. That, however, sounds as a very boring race. I hope to see some surprises and unexpected turns, excitement at least!
Ei kommentteja:
Lähetä kommentti