Round 16- Turkey Quali

Well what a qualifying that was, it could of been anyones going into it… But Mercedes once again dominated qualifying just like they have dominated the rest of the weekend.

LH was fastest overall in qualifying but due to his 10 place grid penalty it means pole position goes to his team-mate Valtteri Bottas. The top 10 after penalties is the following: P1: Bottas, P2: Verstappen, P3: Leclerc, P4: Gasly, P5: Alonso, P6: Perez, P7: Norris, P8: Stroll, P9: Tsunoda and P10: Vettel, Lewis will be starting P11.

I feel like the top 10 is quite mixed up with the top 5 being from 5 different teams, in which we haven’t seen that happen much, unlike last race weekend we saw it being 4 different teams in the top 4.

One person who I have to mention after a BEAUTIFUL lap in Q1 is Mick Schumacher! He said he wanted it to rain today and it did, which left the track wet for Qualifying and it made him get into Q2 for the second time in his F1 career!

ISTANBUL, TURKEY – OCTOBER 09: Mick Schumacher of Germany driving the (47) Haas F1 Team VF-21 Ferrari during qualifying ahead of the F1 Grand Prix of Turkey at Intercity Istanbul Park on October 09, 2021 in Istanbul, Turkey. (Photo by Dan Istitene – Formula 1/Formula 1 via Getty Images)

Pierre done very well today, after only qualifying P12 at the last race, he is back to being up near the top, where he has been for the majority of the year. It always seems like his in the right place at the right time, it’s just a shame to not see him in a top car and then we could see what he really does after having a confidence boost since being at AlphaTauri…

Charles done well too! Being on the second row is just what him and Ferrari need, especially with his team-mate being at the back and one of the McLaren’s being near at the back too which will benefit Charles tomorrow. Another thing I have to mention is Ferrari’s strategy! First up they had Carlos push Daniel out of Q1 so he couldn’t get into Q2 and then Carlos went ahead of his team-mate in Q2 to give Charles a lovely slip-stream to boost him into getting into Q3.

Bit of a down day for Russell and Ricciardo, obviously Ricciardo being knocked out of Q1 which is a shame but we know he can capitalise on other peoples mistakes tomorrow in the race! And for Russell he was set to get into Q3 with a really good time until he made a tiny error on his flying lap which didn’t see him improve and knocked out. But his in a good position to score some points tomorrow and he gets free tyre choice!

Predictions for tomorrow-

I’d say the win will go to Lewis! I have a feeling Mercedes will get his strategy just right! P2: Leclerc, P3: Bottas, P4: Norris and P5: Gasly. I think fastest lap will go to Bottas.

You can’t count out Leclerc, Norris and Gasly tomorrow. I feel like these three will have a battle on track, even though Norris is a couple places behind them, he normally gets a good start either maintaining position or gains positions.

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