Brendan Lines October 11, 2020

Valtteri Bottas has snatched pole from the clutches of teammate Lewis Hamilton on a flying final lap in Q3, the Finn taking his third pole of the 2020 season and first at the Nurburgring for the Eifel Grand Prix, completing Mercedes’ eighth front row lockout of the season, Red Bull’s Max Verstappen will start from P3.

The big news of the session was the inclusion of super sub Nico Hülkenberg, who was parachuted in to drive for Racing Point with just minutes to spare before qualifying replacing the ill Lance Stroll.

Hülkenberg had been scheduled for a broadcasting appearance for Sunday’s race, but was rushed to the circuit from some 50km away. Although the haste of his arrival was impressive, the German had it all in front of him with no time to prepare, any progress past Q1 would’ve been a miracle, but the sub will start from P20 — though a respectable 1.7s off Bottas’ time.

With just an hour of track time in FP3 after Friday’s washout, Bottas put on a barnstorming final lap in Q3 of 1.25:269s lighting up the timing charts with all three purple sectors after the session was mostly dominated by Hamilton and Verstappen.

“It feels great to be on pole position here and I really enjoyed that session,” Bottas said after qualifying.

“It’s such a nice feeling when you get it with your last chance in Q3. That final lap was spot on.

“I was struggling a little in the first sector beforehand, but I managed to get it right in the end.

“Obviously, it was pretty tricky with just one practice session and the cold conditions, so getting the tyres in the sweet spot on the outlap was really important and I managed to get them in the window.

“It’s a new day tomorrow and is going to be an interesting race, especially with the lack of running we’ve had here and the temperatures.

“I’ve only got one goal for tomorrow, so hopefully I can have a good start and we’ll see what happens from there.”

A surprise performance came from Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, his P4 was pay-off from some significant aero upgrades to his SF1000’s floor and bargeboards. The Monegasque’s time of 1.26:053s was just over a tenth faster than Red Bull’s Alex Albon in P5.

Conversely, Leclerc’s Ferrari teamate Sebastian Vettel didn’t enjoy the same rewards, the German eliminated after Q2 and will start from P11.

Daniel Ricciardo was the fastest of the Renault cars in P6, his fastest time in Q3 was just over a tenth faster edging his teammate Esteban Ocon back to P7. The result puts the Renault drivers ahead of both its rivals in the constructors championship, Racing Point and McLaren.

P8 went to McLaren’s Lando Norris though his MCL35 looked pinned to the track the McLaren’s top speed looked a little down, his teammate Carlos Sainz finished in P10 some two and a half tenths down on Norris.

Parked right between the McLarens is Sergio Perez’s Racing Point, having carried all the teams expectations for qualifying the Mexican will start from P9.

The Eifel Grand Prix starts 10:40pm ACDST tonight.

Full qualifying results:

Pos	No	Driver	Car	Q1	Q2	Q3	Laps
1	77	Valtteri Bottas	Mercedes	1:26.573	1:25.971	1:25.269	19
2	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	1:26.620	1:25.390	1:25.525	18
3	33	Max Verstappen	Red Bull Racing Honda	1:26.319	1:25.467	1:25.562	15
4	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	1:26.857	1:26.240	1:26.035	18
5	23	Alexander Albon	Red Bull Racing Honda	1:27.126	1:26.285	1:26.047	15
6	3	Daniel Ricciardo	Renault	1:26.836	1:26.096	1:26.223	18
7	31	Esteban Ocon	Renault	1:27.086	1:26.364	1:26.242	20
8	4	Lando Norris	McLaren Renault	1:26.829	1:26.316	1:26.458	18
9	11	Sergio Perez	Racing Point BWT Mercedes	1:27.120	1:26.330	1:26.704	17
10	55	Carlos Sainz	McLaren Renault	1:27.378	1:26.361	1:26.709	20
11	5	Sebastian Vettel	Ferrari	1:27.107	1:26.738		16
12	10	Pierre Gasly	AlphaTauri Honda	1:27.072	1:26.776		16
13	26	Daniil Kvyat	AlphaTauri Honda	1:27.285	1:26.848		16
14	99	Antonio Giovinazzi	Alfa Romeo Racing Ferrari	1:27.532	1:26.936		14
15	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas Ferrari	1:27.231	1:27.125		16
16	8	Romain Grosjean	Haas Ferrari	1:27.552			10
17	63	George Russell	Williams Mercedes	1:27.564			9
18	6	Nicholas Latifi	Williams Mercedes	1:27.812			9
19	7	Kimi Räikkönen	Alfa Romeo Racing Ferrari	1:27.817			8
20	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Racing Point BWT Mercedes	1:28.021			10

Q1 107% time – 1:32.361

Note – Practice 1 and 2 were abandoned due to poor weather conditions.