Mercedes re-established their dominance by going 1-2 in the qualifying session for tomorrow’s 2021 Portuguese Grand Prix with Valtteri Bottas eking out a slim margin over his teammate and defending seven-time Formula One world champion, Lewis Hamilton. Red Bull’s Max Verstappen was third.
After a brief intrusion by Verstappen, who grabbed the fastest time earlier in the third practice session, both Mercedes reared up and regained their form prior to tomorrow’s race.
Hamilton logged the fastest time overall in the qualifying session – a sizzling 1:17.968 – but recorded it in the second portion of the session and was unable to replicate in the final session where Bottas edged him out by a mere .007 seconds to claim the pole position.
Verstappen was a distant third behind the pair of Mercedes and will be joined by his Red Bull teammate, Sergio Perez, in the second row tomorrow.
Aston Martin’s former four-time F1 world champion, Sebastian Vettel, put forth his best effort of the season so far, recording the 10th-best overall time.
On the other end of the spectrum, Alpine’s Daniel Ricciardo was knocked out in first qualifying session and will start in 16th position.
