Valtteri Bottas will start the Eifel Grand Prix on pole position, followed by his team-mate Lewis Hamilton in second as the Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula One Team locked out the front row of the grid at the Nürburgring.
Max Verstappen had hoped to deny Mercedes yet another pole position on Saturday after topping Q2, but the Aston Martin Red Bull Racing driver was forced to settle for third.
Q1 – Hülkenberg to start last after Last Minute Call-up
Nico Hülkenberg was unable to get his car out of Q1 in his latest return to Formula 1. The German driver is a last-minute stand in for BWT Racing Point Formula One Team after Lance Stroll came down with a mystery illness. He wasn’t part of the Saturday mornings free practice so had no time to prepare for qualifying. He will start tomorrow last in twentieth.
Williams Racing duo George Russell and Nicholas Latifi will start seventeenth and eighteenth respectively. Russell was not happy with his lap as communicated on his radio afterwards but has still not been beaten by a team-mate in qualifying at a tally of 31-0.
Romain Grosjean missed out on an entry into Q2 by two-one hundredths of a second and will start tomorrow sixteenth. The Frenchman will be rueing having a lap time good enough to advance into Q2 deleted for exceeding track limits at turn four.
Kimi Räikkönen, who will become the driver with the most Formula 1 race starts in history on Sunday, finishes the Q1 omissions and will start nineteenth.
Q2 – Giovinazzi Makes first Q2 Appearance of 2020
Sebastian Vettel was unable to get his car through to Q3. It was announced that both Scuderia Ferrari’s are running the same car so Vettel will be disappointed that he wouldn’t be in the final shoot out with team-mate Charles Leclerc. He will start tomorrow eleventh.
Both Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda’s were not able to get through to Q3, something that will probably disappoint Pierre Gasly. The French driver has been putting in some strong performances recently but will be starting tomorrow twelfth with team-mate Daniil Kvyat behind him in thirteenth.
Antonio Giovinazzi made it through to Q2 for the first time this year but fourteenth was the best he could do, while finishing off the Q2 omissions was Kevin Magnussen in the second Haas, who will start fifteenth.
Q3 – Winning momentum still with Bottas
Verstappen had spent most of Q3 on top and it appeared it would need something special for the Mercedes duo to take pole away from him. However, Verstappen struggled with his tyres in the final segment and ended up being beaten by both cars and will start tomorrow in third.
Verstappen had topped Q2 with a strong lap, but when it mattered, Bottas took top spot by 0.256 seconds from his team-mate Hamilton, with the Dutchman a further 0.037 seconds back in third. Unsurprisingly as it was Formula 1’s first race at the track since 2013. Bottas’ lap of 1:25.269 was a new lap record at the Nürburgring.
Charles Leclerc was the last to cross the line and what a lap it was for him. Recently, he has struggled to even reach Q3 but tomorrow he will join Verstappen on the second row in fourth.
Alexander Albon will start in fifth, but his time was nearly half a second down on his Red Bull team-mate, while Daniel Ricciardo continued to out-qualify his team-mate, with the Australian starting tomorrow sixth with Esteban Ocon in seventh.
Racing Point’s Sergio Pérez sandwiched himself between the two McLaren F1 Team drivers in ninth, with the Mexican just behind Lando Norris and just ahead of Carlos Sainz Jr., who rounded off the top ten.
| Pos | # | Driver | Nat. | Team | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Laps |
| 1 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | FIN | Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team | 1:26.573 | 1:25.971 | 1:25.269 | 19 |
| 2 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | GBR | Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula One Team | 1:26.620 | 1:25.390 | 1:25.525 | 18 |
| 3 | 33 | Max Verstappen | NED | Aston Martin Red Bull Racing | 1:26.319 | 1:25.467 | 1:25.562 | 15 |
| 4 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | MON | Scuderia Ferrari | 1:26.857 | 1:26.240 | 1:26.035 | 18 |
| 5 | 23 | Alexander Albon | THA | Aston Martin Red Bull Racing | 1:27.126 | 1:26.285 | 1:26.047 | 15 |
| 6 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | AUS | Renault DP World F1 Team | 1:26.836 | 1:26.096 | 1:26.223 | 18 |
| 7 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | FRA | Renault DP World F1 Team | 1:27.086 | 1:26.364 | 1:26.242 | 20 |
| 8 | 4 | Lando Norris | GBR | McLaren F1 Team | 1:26.829 | 1:26.316 | 1:26.458 | 18 |
| 9 | 11 | Sergio Pérez | MEX | BWT Racing Point Formula One Team | 1:27.120 | 1:26.330 | 1:26.704 | 17 |
| 10 | 55 | Carlos Sainz Jr. | ESP | McLaren F1 Team | 1:27.378 | 1:26.361 | 1:26.709 | 20 |
| 11 | 5 | Sebastian Vettel | GER | Scuderia Ferrari | 1:27.107 | 1:26.738 | 16 | |
| 12 | 10 | Pierre Gasly | FRA | Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda | 1:27.072 | 1:26.776 | – | 16 |
| 13 | 26 | Daniil Kvyat | RUS | Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda | 1:27.285 | 1:26.848 | – | 16 |
| 14 | 99 | Antonio Giovinazzi | ITA | Alfa Romeo Racing | 1:27.532 | 1:26.936 | – | 14 |
| 15 | 20 | Kevin Magnussen | DEN | Haas F1 Team | 1:27.231 | 1:27.125 | – | 16 |
| 16 | 8 | Romain Grosjean | FRA | Haas F1 Team | 1:27.552 | – | 10 | |
| 17 | 63 | George Russell | GBR | Williams Racing | 1:27.564 | – | 9 | |
| 18 | 6 | Nicholas Latifi | CAN | Williams Racing | 1:27.812 | – | 9 | |
| 19 | 7 | Kimi Räikkönen | FIN | Alfa Romeo Racing | 1:27.817 | – | 8 | |
| 20 | 27 | Nico Hülkenberg | GER | BWT Racing Point Formula One Team | 1:28.021 | – | 10 |
