Mercedes continued, where they had left off at Hungaroring. Bottas set the benchmark in Q1, whilst teammate Hamilton made a small mistake on his first run, being three tenths off the pace. Verstappen showed excellent pace at the wheel of his RB16, jumping second. Charles was fourth, followed by Stroll in his pink Racing Point. Sebastian had had a very difficult start to the British GP weekend, as he had faced a series of techical issues in the free practice sessions, completing only a handful of laps. The woes continued in the qualifying, and Sebastian was in modest P10. The German was a second off the Finn's benchmark, which meant, that he had to go out again at the end of the session. Hamilton put together a competitive lap, making it second in the standings. Hulkenberg, who had been called to replace Perez on a very short notice, jumped fourth on his last run. However, teammate Stroll dropped him down to fifth only a short moment later. Sebastian ended up 8th in the standings. He was a tenth faster than his teammate, who had sit out the second runs. Both Haas drivers and both Alfa Romeos were knocked out of Q2 in addition to Williams' Latifi, who had spun at the closing stages of the first session. Teammate Russell, on the other hand, put together a superb lap, jumping 13th. However, the Briton is still under investigation due to improving his lap time under the yellow flags.
Q2 was all about tyre strategy. Which teams would make it into Q3 setting their fastest lap time on the medium compound? The three leading teams -Mercedes, Red Bull and Racing Point- sent their drivers out on the yellow-marked medium Pirellis. Ferrari had a differing strategy for their drivers; Charles came out on the medium rubber, whilst Sebastian emerged on track on the softs. Hamilton hadn't found the flow yet; the reigning world champion span on his first attempt, which left him with no decent lap time. The home hero's spin brought so much gravel on the track, that the session was red-flagged with 8:51 in the clock. At this point Bottas was topping the time sheets. His closest rival Verstappen was massive 1.1s down on the Mercedes ace! Mercedes' edge was absolutely astronomical! Leclerc was third, Ocon fourth for Renault and Sainz fifth for McLaren. It was a bit surprising to see, that "the pink Mercedes" of Stroll and Hulkenberg were only in P8 and P10. When the session was resumed, Hamilton came out on a new set of medium Pirellis. This time the champion made no mistakes and jumped second, three tenths shy of his teammate. Sebastian's struggle continued, as he was only 8th, in spite of having set his lap time on the soft rubber. As there were three minutes left in the clock, everyone rushed out. Everyone else opted for the soft compound, except for Sebastian and Stroll, who opted for medium tyrewear. Neither of the drivers was able to improve his lap time. The battle behind Mercedes proved tight, and Sainz in his orange McLaren jumped fourth in the dying minutes of the second session. There were two surprise casualties in Q2; once again Albon failed to deliver for Red Bull, ending up in tame P12. Hulkenberg, too got eliminated from Q3 due to having failed to set a lap time competitive enough on the harder tyres. In addition to these surprise names, also the AlphaTauri duo of Gasly and Kvyat were out of the top ten, alongside Williams' Russell. Unbelievable but true, Stroll in crucial P10 and Gasly in P11 had set the exact same lap time! But because Stroll had set it first, he got into Q3 and Gasly didn't.
Bottas had set the pace in the first two segments, but as history had already shown, you mustn't ever write off Lewis Hamilton. Again the Briton rose from the ashes and clocked the fastest lap time, setting a new track record. Bottas was one and a half tenths down on his teammate. Verstappen in third was a light year down, as he was 1.1s slower than the pace-setting Mercedes ace! Stroll was fourth, Charles fifth and Sebastian sixth. I was quite worried to notice, that there were three tenths between the Ferrari teammates, in favor of the Monegasque. However, there was more to come from both Renault and McLaren. Both Ricciardo and Norris made it ahead of Sebastian. Charles showed promising performance, jumping third, but only temporarily. Verstappen rapidly took back his third place. Sebastian went wide on his last flyer, which had unforgiving consequences. The German was left in P10, astronomical two seconds down on the pole-setter! What a highly challenging weekend this has been for Sebastian! Hamilton took his 7th pole on his home turf! Bottas proved unable to match his teammate's time on his last flyer. In the end, the gap was significant three tenths in favor of the Briton. Expectedly, Verstappen was "the best behind Mercedes", qualifying third. Charles managed to extract the maximum out of his SF1000, making it P4. The third row was locked down by Norris in his McLaren and Stroll in his "pink Mercedes". McLaren's Sainz in P7 was followed by the Renault duo of Ricciardo and Ocon, leaving Sebastian at the back of the pack.
Norris is the first driver on the grid to start to the race on the soft Pirellis. It is interesting to see, how the tyre strategy will turn out. Strategy is probably Bottas' best chance to challenge his teammate for victory. I'm still uncertain, whether Sebastian actually managed to improve his lap time on the mediums in Q2. So whether he will start to the race on the soft or medium Pirellis, remains to be seen. The British weather may also throw up some surprises. A Mercedes victory is well predicted, but I'm keeping my fingers crossed, that in spite of a setback-filled start to the weekend, Sebastian will have a consistent and strong race tomorrow! I'm also confident, that Max will spice up the battle between the Silver Arrows! I'm definitely looking forward to an entertaining race.
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