Bottas had his worst start to an F1 season since joining Mercedes and was back in Portimao after a crash at the end of the race with George Russell at Imola, taking his first pole position since the 2020 Sakhir Grand Prix.
None of the Mercedes drivers could improve in the final rounds of the third quarter, but in the Finn’s best lap – 1: 18.348 minutes – he was only able to leave Hamilton behind by 0.007 seconds and prevent the seven-time world champion from becoming the first F1- To become a driver who has reached a century of stakes.
Bottas’ fastest Q3 performance was slower than what Hamilton put on the Medium tire in Q2, but it was just enough to seal the 17th pole of his F1 career and act as a welcome boost of confidence.
Max Verstappen was third fastest after a mistake on his first lap of the third quarter resulted in the Red Bull driver seeing his best lap – which would have been good enough for Pole – canceled for track limits before going on the final third lap the Dutchman in last place landed almost 0.4 s drift.
Verstappen’s Red Bull team-mate Sergio Perez was another tenth in fourth place ahead of Carlos Sainz, who achieved his best qualifying result for Ferrari in P5.
Esteban Ocon secured a brilliant sixth place on the grid for Alpine, missing fifth place by just 0.003 seconds, while McLaren’s Lando Norris was just behind in seventh place.
On the subject of matching items
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was eighth ahead of AlphaTauri driver Pierre Gasly, while Sebastian Vettel enjoyed his best qualifying yet for Aston Martin as he made it into the third quarter and finished tenth.
Russell recovered from his fall with Bottas at Imola with another stellar result on Saturday as he advanced into the second quarter for the third time this season, scooping his best qualifying result for Williams in 11th. He missed a first appearance in the third quarter by just 0.057 seconds.
12th place went to Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi, who overtook Fernando Alonso when the two-time world champion failed to meet his alpine team-mate in the third quarter.
On the subject of matching items
After a crash in qualifying in Imola, Yuki Tsunoda fielded his AlphaTauri on its way to 14th place in the second quarter, ahead of Kimi Raikkonen’s second Alfa Romeo, who was disappointed with the traffic.
Daniel Ricciardo was the biggest scalp of the first quarter as the McLaren driver had a scratchy lap while others improved to knock out the Australian in the first part of qualifying for the first time since the 2019 Japanese Grand Prix.
Despite upgrading his Aston Martin, Lance Stroll could not get out of the first qualifying segment and finished in a low 17th place, only in front of Nicholas Latifis Williams and the Haas rookie duo, which was again led by Mick Schumacher.
FULL QUALIFYING RESULTS FOR THE 2021 F1 PORTUGUESE GRAND PRIX.
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