Saturday’s session was in preparation for Sunday’s 1000th Grand Prix race, the Chinese Grand Prix, at the Shanghai International Circuit.
SHANGHAI, China—April 13th—In Saturday’s practice session Valtteri Bottas continued what he accomplished the previous day. The result? The Finn took his first pole of the season with a close 1:31:547 fastest lap–just 0.023 seconds ahead of Lewis Hamilton. Sebastian Vettel was third.
“It has been a good weekend so far and starting from the pole,” said Bottas afterward. “I was really comfortable today in the practice and the qualifying.”
The two Mercedes teammates traded the fastest two qualifying sessions before the Finn got the jump on Hamilton in the final period when, at the last second, the Briton failed to better Bottas’ best time. The Finn followed with an even better time that nobody else could better afterward.
On the other side of the coin, Alex Albon of Toro Rosso and Antonio Giovanazzi in his Alfa Romeo couldn’t take even one qualifying lap. The Briton crashed his car on the final turn during free practice three, destroying a good share of the bodywork. His team worked on the chassis most of the day, and that eliminated his chances to participate in Saturday’s event.
Meanwhile, the Italian had issues all weekend with the power-unit system. He took the car out for one lap before bringing it into the pits–only to wait and never return onto the circuit.
Both McLarens of Carlos Sainz Jr. and Lando Norris failed to reach the final session. Both finished a disappointing 14th and 15th, respectively, for Sunday’s race.
Kimi Raikkonen was the only Alfa Romeo car left following Giovanazzi’s withdrawal, and he didn’t do much better than the McLaren’s–just placing ahead on the grid in 13th. Dani Kvyat and Sergio Perez were two others who never made it past the second round, finishing 11th and 12th, respectively.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc finished in fourth, followed by the two Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Pierre Gasly in fifth and sixth, respectively. Following a huge disaster in the last race in Bahrain, the Renaults of Daniel Ricciardo and Nico Hulkenberg took seventh and eighth, while the final two spots were occupied by the American Rich Energy Haas F1 Team. Kevin Magnussen and Romain Grosjean finished ninth and tenth without even taking a single lap in the final session.
Bottas was content but, knowing that the real race is on Sunday, he couldn’t be enthusiastic about something that doesn’t count too much. “The lap was ok,” Bottas concluded.
