ROUND 14: Intercity Istanbul Park
Q1 - 2 Red Flags!
Mercedes, Williams, AlphaTauri, Renault and Alfa Romeo sent out their drivers on full wets. The rest of the field ventured out bravely on intermediates hoping to find pace for their hot laps. The weather eventually forced them to pit and switch to full wets themselves.
Magnussen, Kvyat, Russell, Grosjean, Latifi are out.
Kvyat faced visibility issues during his flyer and spun away.
Grosjean slid off into the gravel at Turn1 carrying too much speed and couldn't make it out.
Latifi got stranded in the gravel as well as he slid out towards the end of Turn 8.
Kimi Raikkonen (P3) and Antonio Giovinazzi (P11) enter Q2 for the first time in 2020!
FIA Update: All lap times set under double yellow flags to be investigated after the session.
Q2 - Alfa Romeos shine bright!
Norris, Vettel, Sainz, Leclerc, Gasly are out.
Both Alfa Romeos beat both Ferraris and both McLaren's to enter Q3! OMG right?
Max bludgeons all lap timings and sits 3.4 seconds ahead of Valtteri Bottas!
Both McLarens were grappling for more grip and could not make it out of the qualifying session, which is surprising as Lando looked very strong in FP3.
Both the Ferraris are out in a shocker as they both looked very pacy in wet conditions but in more favourable drier conditions, they got outpaced by a significant margin by almost everyone.
Q3 - Stroll on Pole!
Racing Point boys had a thriller of Q3 as both the drivers made it to the top 3! They took a gamble by putting Checo on the intermediates and he turned out to be on provisional pole on his first flyer! The very minute Checo achieved this feat, all constructors pitted their drivers in reaction. Lance Stroll put himself in the history books as he became one of the youngest pole sitters in F1 history!
Both the Alfa Romeos also made it to Q3 in another shocker ahead of their engine suppliers Ferrari!! The most experienced man on the grid finished at P8, ahead of his rookie team mate Antonio Giovinazzi who finished at P10.
It was quite a spectacle seeing the middle order displace the dominant Silver Arrows and push them back to P6 (#LH44) and P9 (#VB77).
Alex Albon pushed himself higher up in the grid and finally sat in a position to support Max, who otherwise has to keep his own party going up in front.
Will the Racing Points finish on the podium in today's race? Will the Silver Arrows make a recovery to the top? Will Max Verstappen win the Turkish Grand Prix? So many questions, so many emotions & a whole fraternity behind the sentiments. Stay Tuned to find out!
All pictures used in this post are the courtesy of the Formula 1 website, F1 Instagram page, the Instagram pages of all racing teams and the Pirelli website.