Mercedes’ Bottas fights back for pole for second consectuve Silverstone race, besting P2 Hamilton; temp driver Hulkenberg qualifies a wonder P3 for Racing Point

After the massive disappointment of last weekend’s late race tire blowout that dropped him straight out of the points like a stone, Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas roared back to take pole for the second consecutive race at the venerable Silverstone circuit in two weekends. Bottas showed his determination to rebound by pipping his teammate and championship points leader Lewis Hamilton by less than a tenth of a second to take the top spot in tomorrow’s one and only Formula 1 70th Anniversary Grand Prix at the same track where it all started back in 1950. While Hamilton was no doubt briefly let down by having to settle for P2 on the grid, the English 6-time World Champion can no doubt take solace in his big points lead over his Finnish teammate after Hamilton survived his own tire delimitation on the final lap last weekend at the British GP yet still limped home to victory. And, as Bottas knows all too well from his years as the clear Number 2 at Mercedes, out-qualifying Hamilton is one thing and beating him a race is quite another.

Perhaps a bigger story than the seemingly inevitable Silver Arrows 2020 front row lockout was the amazing qualifying effort of Racing Point’s Nico Hulkenberg. After starting the season out of a job Hulkenberg was drafted into the team around ten days ago due to their regular pilot Sergio Perez’s positive COVID test. Hulkenberg looked decent enough in last weekend’s qualifying but could not even make the race when his car mysteriously failed to start. But this Saturday Hulkenberg wrung the neck of his Racing Point to score the third fastest lap of the day ahead of the usually superlative Red Bull of Max Vertsappen. With fingers crossed that nothing goes wrong to again prevent Hulkenberg from starting tomorrow, it should be very exciting to see how the German veteran performs and if he really does have the pace to keep Verstappen behind him and score his first ever career podium in 177 starts. And with Hulkenberg’s Racing Point teammate Lance Stroll only able to execute the sixth fastest lap of the day with a much more intimate knowledge of this year’s RP20 it also begs the question as to just why it is Hulkenberg doesn’t still have a full time drive in Formula 1 in the first place.

With Verstappen’s Red Bull qualifying a surprisingly modest P4 his struggling teammate Alexander Albon was still not able to bridge the seemingly canyon-sized gap in pace that has opened up between them in recent weeks. In fact, Albon qualified way down in P9, barely ahead of the P10 time of Lando Norris’s McLaren. It was not a good result by any measurement and will once again force Albon to scramble to make up positions in the race, which has at times led to disaster for the young Thai so far this season. Daniel Ricciardo’s Renault will line up on the third row of the grid in P5 alongside Stroll and Pierre Gasly took the momentum from his seventh-place finish from last week and carried it over into a fine P7 qualifying effort. Clearly there is something about Silverstone that Gasly’s AlphaTauri really likes but it didn’t carry over to his teammate Daniil Kvyat, who was unceremoniously bounced in Q1 with only the 16th fastest time.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc qualified down in P8, bad enough on its own, but Ferrari’s woes were compounded by a listless P12 quali effort by Sebastien Vettel. Obviously this year’s Ferrari is not fast enough at a circuit like Silverstone to even be the third best team on the track. But Vettel’s stunning lack of pace is an even bigger mystery. Is there something about the SF 1000’s design that simply suits Leclerc better than him? Or has the mental shock of being essentially fired and a lame duck Ferrari driver messing with the 4-time champions’s head to such a degree that he has lost his confidence and competitive edge? There’s obviously still a lot of money on the table that says Vettel will finish out then season for the fabled Scuderia from Maranello. But there’s also a sneaking suspicion in my mind that Vettel is looking for an early exit and some time off before a fresh start, if only subconsciously. And as to who might possibly replace him as a fill-in for the rest of the campaign, well, there’s a fellow named Hulkenberg right down the pit lane who looks pretty much rough and ready for any new F1 adventure that gets thrown his way.

Top 10 qualifiers for the 70th Anniversary Grand Prix:

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live on ESPN at 9AM Eastern here in the States. Hope to see you then to find out if Bottas can covert his pole into a much-needed victory over Hamilton or if the incredible Hulk can pull a one-shot miracle out of the bag!