Hamilton snatches pole from Bottas for inaugural Portimao race, aims to break Schumacher’s victory record tomorrow; Verstappen third fastest

In this most unusual COVID-effected year, which has forced Formula 1 to confine itself to Europe for the bulk of an improvised season, the drivers faced another challenge when they made the first-ever Grand Prix qualifying attempts at Autódromo Internacional do Algarve, aka Portimao, on Saturday. After a long delay precipitated by the need to secure several loose and potentially dangerous drainage grates around the rolling 4.653 kilometer circuit, the unfamiliar and very green track still produced a familiar result when Mercedes ace Lewis Hamilton bested his teammate Valtteri Bottas in the dying moments of Q3, grabbing pole position for Sunday’s Portuguese Grand Prix by a tenth and earning the best possible starting spot to try to win the race and break a tie with the great Michael Schumacher for most-ever wins by a Formula 1 driver. Hamilton will be gunning for an astounding win number 92 tomorrow and it’d be a brave person who would bet against him getting it. Bottas must have been crestfallen to once again play second fiddle to his championship points-leading teammate, having led every practice and qualifying session prior to that final, most important one. The Mercedes braintrust put both their men on the Medium Pirellis for Q3, a somewhat risky and counterintuitive move, especially with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen looking quick enough to threaten the Sliver Arrows’ hegemony while running the ostensibly faster Soft tires. But the gamble paid off and the Mediums wound up being the better performing tire during crunch time, at least if one was driving the peerless Mercedes W11. Interestingly, Hamilton set the fastest overall lap for pole after running two hot laps on his tires on this recently repaved, low abrasion surface, while Bottas ran only the traditional single hot lap and had to once again settle for P2. But the unlucky Finn was still quick enough by around two-tenths to hold off Verstappen, even with the Red Bull man on the softer rubber. The talented Dutchman will start behind the Mercs in the second row in P3 and will be keen to overtake one or both of the top two at the start, perhaps taking advantage of a contretemps between Mercedes teammates heading into Turn 1.

Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc had an excellent run to take the fourth fastest time and line up alongside Verstappen, putting the Monegasque into the mix for a potential podium despite an underwhelming Prancing Horse to ride. It was a particularly impressive lap by Leclerc when one considers his more seasoned teammate Sebastian Vettel was bounced in Q2 with merely the 15th fastest lap. Vettel was even slower than the pokey Williams of George Russell and the end of his star-crossed saga with Ferrari cannot come soon enough for the formerly great German four-time champion. But painfully for Vettel, there are still four more rounds to endure after Portugal. Sergio Perez proved his worth yet again with an excellent P5 qualifying effort for his soon to be ex-team Racing Point, while Verstappen’s Red Bull teammate Alexander Albon was once again far off the pace of his team leader and will start from down in P6. The two McLarens of Carlos Sainz and Lando Norris had a quietly excellent day by qualifying P7 and P8 respectively. Rounding out the Top 10 starters, Pierre Gasly was P9 for AlphaTauri and Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo will start from P10. Ricciardo turned no laps in Q3 after damaging his rear wing when he spun and backed into a tire barrier at the end of the previous qualifying session.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Portuguese GP:

Complete qualifying results available via Formula1.com.

Tomorrow’s race airs live on ESPN2 beginning at 9AM Eastern here in the States. Hope to see you then to find out if Hamilton will become F1’s winningest driver or someone has what it takes to spoil Lewis’ party!