Stroll beats Verstappen to pole in wet Turkish GP qualifying

Lance Stroll denied Max Verstappen to claim an extraordinary first Formula 1 pole at the Turkish Grand Prix, as Mercedes qualified only sixth and ninth.

In wet conditions at Istanbul, a well-timed early move to intermediates allowed Racing Point to take control of Q3 at the end of an interrupted session that Verstappen had been the class of up to that point.

Racing Point looked set for a front-row sweep at one stage before Verstappen managed to salvage second.

Lewis Hamilton, who can clinch a record-equalling seventh F1 title tomorrow, starts only sixth, but that’s three places ahead of Mercedes team-mate Valtteri Bottas, as the constructors’ champion team struggled for speed throughout.

Eleven minutes of Q1 were run before the red flag came out amid worsening rain, decreasing visibility, increasing visits to run-off areas and ever more vehement radio protestations from drivers.

Esteban Ocon sat on the top spot at that point ahead of Bottas, with the order staying that way for three-quarters of an hour while the officials waited for the conditions to improve.

Even when qualifying resumed, the state of the circuit was made very clear by Kimi Raikkonen spinning on a virtually straight piece of track on his out-lap.

And only three minutes of running were managed before Romain Grosjean beached his Haas in the Turn 1 gravel – a fate Charles Leclerc narrowly and skilfully avoided when he slid off at the same point moments earlier.

But that stoppage proved brief, and Verstappen showed what was possible by smashing in a 1m57.485s – over 8.5s quicker than Ocon’s benchmark – in the remaining running.

Even as others improved, Verstappen stayed nearly two seconds clear of team-mate Alex Albon in a Red Bull 1-2, with third-placed Raikkonen 3.8s off.

Grosjean was joined by fellow spinners Daniil Kvyat and Nicholas Latifi in being eliminated, along with George Russell (who has a grid penalty for new engine elements anyway) and Kevin Magnussen.

Sixteenth-placed Magnussen furiously argued that he’d only been knocked out because others declined to slow for the many yellow flags at the end of the session. The stewards will be reviewing a significant number of lap times after qualifying.

It was a similar story at the front in Q2, which Verstappen led by 3.5s at one stage – and which controversially began while Latifi’s Williams was still being retrieved from the Turn 8 gravel by marshals and a recovery tractor.

Albon was again second but again 2s behind his team-mate, while the Mercedes – which had only been ninth (Bottas) and 14th (Hamilton) in Q1 – struggled to get up to speed at the same rate.

They eventually crept forward to third and sixth, Hamilton the faster of them by a second but still 2.4s away from Verstappen.

The McLarens, Ferraris and the remaining AlphaTauri of Pierre Gasly also exited in Q2, with Sebastian Vettel in 12th outqualifying 14th-placed team-mate Leclerc for the first time since Hungary in July.

Carlos Sainz Jr was subsequently given a three-place penalty, which will drop him from 13th to 16th, for impeding Sergio Perez.

Verstappen carried his astounding form into Q3 with an initial lap 4.1s quicker than then-second-place man Bottas. Only Stroll got within a second and a half of Verstappen at that point.

But Perez made an early swap to intermediates and pinched provisional pole, prompting Verstappen to abandon an even faster lap to grab inters himself – while Perez proved life was still tricky on those tyres by spinning on the next lap.

Verstappen struggled to get up to speed quick enough on inters and was left temporarily floundering as Perez improved his provisional pole mark to 1m49.321s – 3s clear of the field at that point.

Stroll was even faster, though, putting in a 1m47.765s while Perez went off on his next lap.

Verstappen did manage to close to within 0.290s of Stroll, but it was Racing Point that ended 2020’s streak of Mercedes poles at last.

Stroll was later investigated over a potential yellow flag infringement, but cleared of any wrongdoing by the stewards.

Albon backed Verstappen up with fourth place, while the Renaults of Daniel Ricciardo and Ocon sandwiched Hamilton.

Alfa Romeo also showed good form throughout. Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi will start either side of Bottas in eighth and 10th.

Qualifying Results