Stroll grabs wonder pole in wet & wild Turkish GP qualifying, Perez P3 in banner day for Racing Point; unhappy Verstappen settles for P2 after key Red Bull strategy call; Mercedes’ season-long pole streak ends

With an already slick new surface giving drivers fits during dry practice sessions for Formula 1’s return to Turkey and Intercity Istanbul Park, traction was even further compromised by a deluge at the start of Saturday qualifying for tomorrow’s Grand Prix. The rain on top of the new asphalt resulted in a long Red Flag period in Q1 to try and wait the weather out after the best drivers in the world went skating around the circuit as if on ice. Clearly, no slick Pirellis would be used and the treacherous track conditions meant the day was ripe for unexpected qualifying results. And that’s just what happened. The Racing Point of Lance Stroll put in a perfect, highly technical lap and coaxed his car around, keeping it out the gravel traps to seize pole away from the usual suspects. Stroll made the most of the team’s pivotal Q3 decision to run him and his teammate, Sergio Perez, on Intermediate rather than full Wet tires on a tricky but marginally improving track. Crucially, when Perez temporarily set the fastest lap on his Inters and bested the Red Bull of Max Verstappne’s time early in the final session the Red Bull brain trust reacted and pulled Verstappen in from a very tasty hot lap to have the Dutch rainmeister match Racing Point’s move off the full Wets and onto the Inters. However, Versteppen simply couldn’t get the Inters to perform as well as the Racing Point duo and had to watch Stroll take his first career pole ahead of his P2 time nearly 4-tenths in arrears. Perez slotted in at third fastest and a disgruntled Verstappen was left rueing the team’s strategy call, although one can certainly understand their logic in looking to find the magic crossover point in tire performance. For the young Canadian Stroll, who has struggled mightily since missing the Eiffel GP with what was eventually diagnosed as COVID, there were no regrets only jubilation. His joy might not be long lived because holding on to that top spot tomorrow in the face of Verstappen’s onslaught could be more than a little tricky. But grabbing an F1 pole is nonetheless something he can carry with him as a badge of honor for the rest off his life. And who knows? If the weather is the same in Istanbul tomorrow, which it could well be, Stroll and the two Racing Points may just be able to excel again in these funky conditions.

Stroll’s wonder pole in the wet was also the first time this season a non-factory Mercedes hadn’t claimed that honor. If Verstappen was miffed by his team’s decisions the Mercedes duo of points-leader Lewis Hamilton and second place Valtteri Bottas were utterly flummoxed, as the normally superlative Silver Arrows stubbornly refused to get any of their wet weather tires to turn on and perform. Hamilton and Bottas will start in the unexpected positions of P6 and P9 respectively and will surely be hoping for drier conditions come race day. Ahead of Hamilton, the second Red Bull of Alexander Albon was able to tiptoe his way around for a solid P4 spot on the grid, while Renault’s Daniel Riccardo used all his experience to qualify P5. Just behind Lewis and in front of Valtteri, Ricciardo’s teammate Esteban Ocon took P7 and wily old veteran Kimi Raikkonen used his rallying CV to good effect to take P8 for Alfa Romeo. Raikkonen’s teammate Antonio Giovinazzi will line up alongside Bottas in P10, an auspicious result for the team after their double points finish two weeks ago at Imola.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Turkish Grand Prix:

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live on ESPN beginning at the ungodly hour of 5AM Eastern here in the States. If the weather then is anywhere near as wet as it was today this should be a can’t-miss race of frantic action and unexpected results. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!