Valtteri Bottas prevents Lewis Hamilton from taking the 100th pole in qualifying at Portimão

Round three of the Formula 1 world championship took a trip to the Algarve to qualify for the Portuguese Grand Prix at the Portimão. On the twenty-seventh anniversary of Ayrton Sennas Death on the track from the preliminary round, ImolaF1 fans were hoping for an exciting session that will live up to the memory of the great man.

There were sure to be some thrills no matter what. During this weekend’s training sessions, countless track times were cleared for violating track restrictions, and strong gusts of wind threw the cars around. Lewis Hamilton also hoped to take his hundredth career pole position.

Q1: Pérez spins and Ricciardo loses

With Uralikali Haas F1 Team Looking for the first trip outside of first qualifying since their last trip to Portimao in November, they were deeply disappointed after another bad session for the Banbury-based team. Hamilton had canceled his first lap time due to track restrictions and had to drive another lap with a used set of tires to survive the session. Sergio Perez In turn four he turned into the gravel because of the strong winds of 17.5 km / h.

Lance Stroll ((Aston Martin Cognizant Formula 1 team) decided not to come out for another round and ended up in the bottom five while Esteban Ocon ((Alpine F1 team) do a strong final lap to push Daniel Ricciardo ((McLaren F1 Team) from qualifying in the first session. George Russell impressed once again and kept up his streak to get into the second qualifying, but Williams Racing Teammate Nicholas latifi found traffic and was eliminated next to Ricciardo, Stroll, Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin.

Q2: Russell impressed, Vettel on form

The cars powered by Mercedes Lando Norris and Valtteri Bottas the first cars were out. Both cars from the Scuderia Ferrari, Mercedes-AMG Petronas Formula 1 Team, Alfa Romeo Racing ORLEN and Red Bull Racing The teams took medium tires for their laps, along with Russell.

Sebastian Vettel was in good shape, placing his car in the top ten for the first time since its debut for Aston Martin. He will hope this is the start of good form for himself as he has been very unhappy so far. Russell drove an impressive lap time, just 0.059 seconds behind Pierre Gasly ((Scuderia AlphaTauri Honda) to take eleventh place for tomorrow’s starting grid.

Alfa Romeos Antonio Giovinazzi will begin twelfth before Fernando AlonsoThe Spaniard is likely to be disappointed with the thirteenth after Alpine showed a good pace throughout practice. The last two drivers to retire in the second quarter were AlphaTauris Yuki Tsunoda and the second Alfa Romeo from Kimi Raikkonen.

Q3: Mercedes on media, anti-climactic end

The all-important final meeting left a lot to be desired in tomorrow’s race. Every car except Max Verstappen and Ocon took an extra lap to warm up their tire temperatures. Verstappen’s first lap was cleared after he ventured off the track at turn four during a tank rattle. From the first group of drivers, Bottas drove the fastest lap. Despite his armored rattle, Verstappen drove a faster lap and prepared for a very exciting end to the session, which unfortunately did not materialize.

Strangely enough, both Mercedes vehicles opted for the final laps with the medium compound tires. It seems like the Mercedes team thinks their car is better tuned to warm up the medium tires to optimal range than the soft tires. A confusing choice for fans who are used to the fact that the softest tires are hands down the fastest.

However, in a disappointing end to the session, none of the top cars improved from previous lap times, in large part due to the wind picking up, which made driving on very slippery surfaces even more difficult.

Bottas took pole position in the end with a 1: 18.348 and was the only driver who completed a lap faster than in the second qualifying. Verstappen, frustrated with the result, pushed the cameras away from a conversation he’d had with his teammate after he parked their cars. His second run was only good enough for the third, about 0.4 seconds behind the pace, and team-mate Pérez finished fourth.

Carlos Sainz Jr. was the best of the others in fifth place, the Scuderia Ferrari driver putting it together when it mattered, displacing the impressive Ocon by just 0.003 seconds. Norris failed to repeat his impressive pace in the first two qualifying segments when he got the top three in trouble and finished seventh in the third race in a row.

Charles Leclerc He finished three tenths behind his teammate Sainz in eighth place ahead of Gasly while Vettel finished a streak of fifteen races in which he failed to make the third quarter by closing the top ten.