2021 F1 Round 3, Portuguese Grand Prix qualifying: Bottas takes pole, Mercedes seals first front-row lockout of the season, Verstappen third after lap deletion

Qualifying for the Portuguese Grand Prix, round three of the 2021 Formula 1 World Championship, took place at the Algarve International Circuit at 10 p.m. China Standard Time (UTC+8) on 1 May, with Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas taking pole position in 1:18.348.

Team-mate Lewis Hamilton was second, the pair separated by just 0.007 seconds — giving Mercedes its first front-row lockout of the season.

Max Verstappen (Red Bull) set a pole-worthy time on his first Q3 run, only to have it deleted for exceeding track limits; his final timed attempt to fight back was then hampered by traffic, stronger crosswinds and tyres that would not work properly, leaving him third, 0.4 seconds adrift. Sergio Perez was fourth, 0.5 seconds behind.

Verstappen looked deeply dejected after qualifying. Asked why, he openly voiced his frustration and irritation with the circuit’s newly laid surface and Sebastian Vettel, who had held him up.

At AlphaTauri, Pierre Gasly gave it everything to extend his run of consecutive Q3 appearances, dating back to last year’s Bahrain Grand Prix, to six races and secure ninth; Yuki Tsunoda failed to get the most out of the soft tyres and was eliminated in Q2 in 14th, with the pair separated by 0.411 seconds in that session.

Ferrari was next behind the leading four, in keeping with the expected pecking order: Carlos Sainz edged Esteban Ocon (Alpine) by just 0.003 seconds to take fifth; Lando Norris (McLaren) was seventh, with Charles Leclerc eighth.

Aston Martin’s Vettel slipped into the final place in the top 10: team-mate Lance Stroll, who had received the upgrades first, was knocked out in Q1 (17th), while the four-time world champion, forced to run the old specification, enjoyed a long-awaited return to the final segment.

As in the morning’s third practice session, the weather in the Algarve was sunny, and the battle to decide the race’s starting order began in dry conditions, with an air temperature of 18°C and a track temperature of 38°C.

Official tyre supplier Pirelli brought the C1 hard (white), C2 medium (yellow) and C3 soft (red) compounds. Interestingly, the fastest lap of the entire qualifying session was Hamilton’s 1:17.968 on medium tyres in Q2.

A sensor fault had earlier forced the removal of the gearbox from Bottas’ car, but the work was completed in time for qualifying; Norris’ control unit (CE) had also triggered a fault warning, but he too came through that scare.

Perez ran into the gravel after suffering oversteer at Turn 4, bringing out yellow flags; strong winds were thought to be the cause.

In Q1, contested by all 20 cars, George Russell (Williams) squeezed into Q2 by 0.042 seconds. Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren) was left ruing his elimination, while team-mate Norris sailed through in second.

Yuki Tsunoda made it through Q1 in 12th, just 0.15 seconds clear of Ricciardo.

With five cars eliminated and 15 remaining for Q2, both cars from Mercedes, Red Bull, Ferrari and Alfa Romeo, along with Norris and Russell — 10 cars in total — took to the track on medium tyres.

Hamilton was the only driver to break into the 1:17s as Mercedes demonstrated its pace; with Red Bull running medium tyres, Verstappen advanced in fifth, 0.6 seconds adrift.

Both Alfa Romeo cars were eliminated in Q2: Antonio Giovinazzi was 12th and Kimi Räikkönen 15th.

There were similarly contrasting fortunes at Alpine: Ocon advanced in fourth, while Fernando Alonso was 13th.

The highest-placed of those eliminated was “Mr Saturday” Russell in 11th, an impressive showing.

In Q3, which determined the order of the top 10, Verstappen’s first run yielded a 1:18.209, good enough for provisional pole, but it was deleted for exceeding track limits, leaving him under intense pressure.

The outcome was therefore left to the final runs, but strengthening crosswinds changed the conditions and no one could improve: Hamilton, Verstappen, Perez, Sainz, Ocon, Norris and Leclerc could not even beat their own Q2 bests.

At 10 p.m. China Standard Time (UTC+8) on 2 May, the race will take place at the same circuit; 66 laps will be contested around the 4,653-metre track.