On Monday after the Bahrain GP my son was taken into the intensive care unit due to a severe infection, which had been caused by the cancer treatments. By this time his condition has turned quite critical, as the fungus in his blood has affected all vital organs. At the moment he is fighting for his life. I've been sitting here in my son's room every day, coming in the morning and staying up until the evening. Now my son is restfully asleep, so I am sitting beside his bed and writing about today's qualifying. I really need F1 action now to take my concentration off all the worries even for a short fleeting moment.
To the qualifying then. Toro Rosso rookie Albon was unable to take part in the qualifying, as the Thai had crashed out in the last free practice session. In terms of the pecking order, I actually didn't know what to expect. After the first runs the new "Bottas 2.0" topped the time sheets, with a significant 4-tenth gap to his teammate. Red Bull's Verstappen was third, Sebastian fourth and Renault's Hulkenberg fifth. Bahrain hero Leclerc didn't manage to put together a solid lap on his first attempt, and was only 11th. Kimi, too was in modest P15 after the first runs. The top five sat out the second runs. Leclerc managed to pull out an outstanding lap at the end of the session, and the Monegasque jumped second, only 0.054s shy of Mercedes ace Bottas. There were no surprise casualties in Q1 this time. Racing Point's Stroll was the first driver to be knocked out in the first session. Unfortunately Kimi's Italian teammate Giovinazzi was hit with technical issues, which ended the qualifying for him. As expected, the Williams duo of Russell and Kubica missed out on Q2 as well.
For the first time this season, Q2 saw different tyre strategies. Both Mercedes and Ferrari sent their drivers out on the medium tyres. Red Bull's Verstappen opted for a similar tyre choice. The Finnish Mercedes ace Bottas continued where he had left off in the first segment. Again, the Finn was clearly the fastest man on the track. The pace of the red-suited drivers was quite evenly matched, Sebastian and Charles being half-a-second off the flying Finn. Verstappen was fourth and Hamilton only fifth, the reigning world champion being whole 8 tenths down on his teammate. It was quite amazing, how competitive the medium tyre turned out. Hamilton took another set of medium Pirellis for his second run, as did Ferrari's Leclerc, whilst the other top drivers came out on the red-marked soft Pirellis. Unfortunately Kimi was struggling with his pace. After his first attempt the Iceman was 13th, 1.9s off his compatriot's benchmark. The second run saw the Iceman jump 10th, but only a short moment later Haas' Grosjean dropped the Finn out of Q3. Hamilton managed to put all sectors together on his final run, snatching the top spot from his teammate by 0.091s. The top drivers on the soft compound didn't improve their lap times. Toro Rosso's Kvyat was the first driver to be eliminated from the last segment. Out of Q3 were also Racing Point's Perez, Kimi, who had suffered from engine wows during his final run, and the McLaren duo of Sainz and Norris. Red Bull's Gasly made it among the top ten for the first time this season. This time the strongest teams of the midfield were Haas and Renault, with both cars of both teams proceeding into the final segment.
Everyone came out on the soft compound, as the battle for pole began. Bottas continued his impressive performance and took provisional pole by seven thousandths of a second to his teammate! Sebastian was third, but the German proved unable to match the Silver Arrows' pace, as the gap to Bottas was massive four tenths. Verstappen was fourth and Leclerc fifth after the first runs. Hamilton started his second flyer well, but proved unable to improve his lap time in the end. Teammate Bottas, on the other hand, even improved his time on his second attempt, and snatched his first pole of the season. Hamilton made it another front-row lock-out for the Silver Arrows. It was very tight between the Scuderia drivers, as the duo was separated by 17 thousandths of a second only, in favor of Sebastian. There was drama in terms of Haas and Red Bull drivers at the closing stages of Q3, as neither one of the drivers managed to start his time lap in time! The teams had sent their drivers out too late, which possibly cost Verstappen the fourth place. The Red Bull drivers locked down the third row, but the gap between the teammates was massive nine tenths in favor of the flying Dutchman. The Renault duo of Ricciardo and Hulkenberg locked down the fourth row, whilst the Haas drivers Magnussen and Grosjean had to settle for the fifth row.
The long runs of the three top teams were quite evenly matched on Friday, so I'm expecting to see an eventful race tomorrow. I'm sure the Mercedes teammates will have a fiery fight for the lead. The red-suited drivers will certainly put their spoons in the soup as well! And I'm sure Verstappen is extremely hungry to get on the podium. He won't miss out on ways, how to get past his rivals! Tyre management is definitely one of the keys to success in China. I´ll watch the race at home, before I head to the hospital again. I hope it will be full of entertainment and action! Sebastian on the top step of the podium would totally make my day!
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