Tuscan GP: Hamilton edges pole from Bottas

Lewis Hamilton will start on pole for the first ever Tuscan Grand Prix setting his 95th pole position. 

His main rival was his teammate Valtteri Bottas who managed second having to abort his final lap after Esteban Ocon spun in front of him.

Bottas had been the fastest all weekend topping the three practice sessions and Q1 with Hamilton only edging ahead in Q2.

Bottas was very disappointed after the session admitting he definitely had more speed in him feeling he could have taken pole convincingly.

Hamilton was able to make it work in the first Q3 runs and that was the time that won him pole.

Max Verstappen completed the 2020 status quo qualifying in third having posed a challenge to the Mercedes all weekend. He was three tenths off Hamilton’s pole time in the end with race pace looking to be very close.

Fourth place went to Alex Albon, himself a few tenths further back from his teammate who matched his best every qualifying result making it a second row lockout for Red Bull.

Charles Leclerc improved on his final lap to go fifth benefiting from those behind him being held up by Ocon’s spin. It is a good result for Ferrari’s 1000th Grand Prix.

Sergio Perez outqualifed his teammate Lance Stroll in sixth despite Stroll having the new updated parts on the car. On the weekend that Perez has been dropped from the team, outperforming his teammate who is staying is a massive statement.

Their positions will be swapped by Perez’s one place penalty which he was awarded in practice yesterday but the result is still strong for hi

Daniel Ricciardo and Carlos Sainz were eighth and ninth with Ricciardo very close to the Racing Points. Sainz was a further second back himself hampered by Ocon’s spin as well.

Ocon did not set a time in Q3 and will start 10th. He only had one attempt and that was the one he spun on dropping it on the exit of the high speed turn three.

Lando Norris was forced out of Q3 appearance by his teammate Carlos Sainz who just cleared him to place 10th in Q2 forcing Norris into 11th.

Daniil Kvyat put in a decent showing to finish the session in 12th even with an off at turn 7 on his final flyer. He was ahead of Kimi Raikkonen in Alfa Romeo’s best performance all season. Kvyat and Raikkonen set identical laptimes with Kvyat setting it first so gaining the position.

Sebastian Vettel was 14th behind the customer team by 0.004s with Romain Grosjean in 15th. The last of the Q2 runners.

Out in Q1 was last week’s race winner Pierre Gasly who came back down to earth with a thud missing out on a Q2 appearance by 0.053s to Vettel outqualified by his teammate Kvyat for the second time this year.

Antonio Giovinazzi is in 17th heading up both Williams and Kevin Magnussen’s Haas.

George Russell is ahead of Nicholas Latifi despite running wide at turn 7. He kept it pinned and managed to continue his record outqualifying every teammate in F1.