Bottas steals pole ahead from Hamilton at F1’s return to Imola

Valtteri Bottas took pole position as he led a Mercedes front-row lockout at the thirteenth race of the 2020 FIA Formula 1 World Championship, with Lewis Hamilton following nearly a tenth behind at the spectacular Autodromo Internazionale Enzo e Dino Ferrari.

Max Verstappen was in third position- 0.567s behind Hamilton on the second row. Pierre Gasly, Daniel Ricciardo, Alexander Albon, Charles Leclerc, Daniil Kvyat, Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz Jr. completed the top 10 positions.

This starting order appears to be rather important for the race tomorrow, (which has sunny yet partly-cloudy skies forecast) as the narrow track is expected to restrict overtaking significantly. The three Pirelli tyre compounds for the race are a step softer than those at Portimão, with the C2, C3 and C4 being utilised this weekend at Imola.

Q1: Traffic and track-limits woes continue in Italy

The qualifying session started under clear skies at 13:00 GMT, and as is rather common with Italian circuits, traffic played a big role in Qualifying for many drivers- in some cases determining grid positions. Early on in the first session, both Sainz and Valtteri Bottas were obstructed at Rivazza and were subsequently compromised attempting to start their vital flying laps.

As well as this, track-limits antics continued with multiple lap-times seeing deletions after infringements- particularly at turns nine and fifteen. Bottas experienced such deletions first-hand, and was then pressured to set another lap in order to make it out of the slowest five.

With just ten seconds to go, Kevin Magnussen took a trip over the gravel and therefore sabotaged his chances of advancing into the top fifteen. The Dane looked furious, and just seconds later Kimi Räikkönen had his lap-time deleted rendering him seventeenth only. Another stand-out performance saw ‘Mr. Saturday’ George Russell emerge into the second part of Qualifying as his team-mate Nicholas Latifi could only manage nineteenth.

Q2: Power troubles for Verstappen

Just minutes into the second session, an infuriated Verstappen aired a worrying radio-message complaining about a lack of power. The Dutchman was unable to set a lap-time early on after retiring to the garage for repairs, and so many were doubtful he would even make it into the top ten. It looked like double-trouble for Red Bull as Alexander Albon fell victim to the awkward curbs at the Variante Alta chicane. The Thai-driver flat-spotted the tyres and then had to box for new rubber.

Fortunately, Verstappen’s problem was not terminal and the Red Bull team worked their usual wonders in order to get the car ready for a lap. Team Principal Christian Horner went on to elaborate on the problem, citing the problem was an ‘electrical issue’ that caused an ‘engine misfire’.

Interestingly, neither of the BWT Racing Point Formula One Team drivers could make it into the final session after mistakes and deletions saw no improvements made. Sebastian Vettel’s Ferrari nightmares continued on the team’s home-soil as the German could only set a time good enough for fourteenth, and an excited Russell capitalised on the circumstances to bag himself thirteenth.

Q3: Bottas pulls it out the bag to take pole

The final (and most important) twelve-minute shootout started with the Mercedes drivers in a class of their own in the fight for pole position, as Hamilton and Bottas set the pace with the first of the one-minute-thirteens.

Alexander Albon fell victim to yet another track-limits infringement and was thus even more pressured to perform in the closing stages. The Red Bull driver could only manage sixth, and was beaten by the very man he replaced at the top team- Gasly.

Ricciardo had a great session and set a scintillating lap to take fifth place behind the AlphaTauri, and Kvyat also performed admirably in his first Q3 appearance since Mexico last year to take eighth.

2020 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix Qualifying Order

Pos	#	Driver	Nat.	Team	Q1	Q2	Q3	Laps
1	77	Valtteri Bottas	FIN	Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team	1:14.221	1:14.585	1:13.609	22
2	44	Lewis Hamilton	GBR	Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team	1:14.229	1:14.643	1:13.706	22
3	33	Max Verstappen	NED	Aston Martin Red Bull Racing	1:15.034	1:14.974	1:14.176	16
4	10	Pierre Gasly	FRA	Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda	1:15.183	1:14.681	1:14.502	19
5	3	Daniel Ricciardo	AUS	Renault DP World F1 Team	1:15.474	1:14.953	1:14.520	18
6	23	Alexander Albon	THA	Aston Martin Red Bull Racing	1:15.402	1:14.745	1:14.572	21
7	16	Charles Leclerc	MON	Scuderia Ferrari	1:15.123	1:15.017	1:14.616	20
8	26	Daniil Kvyat	RUS	Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda	1:15.412	1:15.022	1:14.696	21
9	4	Lando Norris	GBR	McLaren F1 Team	1:15.274	1:15.051	1:14.814	17
10	55	Carlos Sainz Jr.	ESP	McLaren F1 Team	1:15.528	1:15.027	1:14.911	19
11	11	Sergio Pérez	MEX	BWT Racing Point Formula One Team	1:15.407	1:15.061		16
12	31	Esteban Ocon	FRA	Renault DP World F1 Team	1:15.352	1:15.201		14
13	63	George Russell	GBR	Williams Racing	1:15.760	1:15.323		18
14	5	Sebastian Vettel	GER	Scuderia Ferrari	1:15.571	1:15.385		20
15	18	Lance Stroll	CAN	BWT Racing Point Formula One Team	1:15.822	1:15.494		16
16	8	Romain Grosjean	FRA	Haas F1 Team	1:15.918			10
17	20	Kevin Magnussen	DEN	Haas F1 Team	1:15.939			11
18	7	Kimi Räikkönen	FIN	Alfa Romeo Racing	1:15.953			10
19	6	Nicholas Latifi	CAN	Williams Racing	1:15.987			12
20	99	Antonio Giovinazzi	ITA	Alfa Romeo Racing	1:16.208			8