2020 Emilia Romagna Grand Prix: Qualifying Highlights

So Giovinazzi stays plumb last as Daniel Ricciardo just starting a flying lap now ahead of him. We're on board with Lance Stroll, but Latifi, Russell and Raikkonen all need to improve to get out of that bottom five. And crossing the line. Oh, that is not the way to go! Kevin Magnussen, driver at risk. Driver at risk. You're hitting the wall for a moment there as well as he goes very, very wide out of the final corner. And that is not going to help his chances at all. Grosjean only 14th, perhaps. Russell goes up to 11th. Raikkonen then goes 11th as well. Can either of those two stay out of the bottom five? Carlos Sainz is only 10th fastest for Carlos Sainz. He looks a little bit wide coming out of Rivazza as well. Esteban Ocon now needs to cross the line and hope that he's improved his time too. We'll see him in a couple of moments as we pick up the Renault now. Raikkonen's gone down to 17th. Track limits again for the second time. Ocon goes 7th fastest. Raikkonen has started last here for a San Marino Grand Prix before in 2004, but he's not going to do that this weekend as his teammates last at the moment. Bottas goes quickest with a 1.14.2. Ricciardo goes 11th fastest overall. Should definitely be good enough for him. Kevin Magnussen kicking up a lot of dust. They just understeered clean off the road. It wasn't that he had to correct a slide. He just didn't have enough command on the front tyres there. No power. Yeah, I mean, it's no power. Keep pushing. No, it's not working. Verstappen then boxes. That is either a software problem, easy to fix. Hardware problem. Could be terminal for Max Verstappen. Big up yourselves, Red Bull and Honda Mechanics. You have done the incredible once again and got Max Verstappen back in this qualifying game. George Russell, fastest in the first sector, George Russell. And he's not too shabby at all in the middle sector on this particular lap. Is it possible that George Russell could get somewhere near to Q3 or even in Q3? Oh, he goes 11th. 1.15.3 for George Russell. He has missed getting into Q3 by the merest of margins. Oh dear, oh dear. So Max Verstappen, fourth fastest overall. That should be enough to get that car into the top 10 shootout. Gets a round of applause, but they should be applauding each other in that garage as well. Lance Strolls had a lap time deleter for exceeding track limits. Alex Albon goes fourth fastest on the soft compound tyre to get into Q3. And we're on board now with Sebastian Vettel. Strolls' lap time deletion means that he should be, I think, out now of qualifying. I don't think he's going to get another lap in. No, he's not because he hasn't got the cool-down lap to charge up the batteries. Vettel only 13th fastest. And that's not where he would want to be starting, I am sure. Perez misses out as well on the top 10 here by 1.1 of a second. Sergio Perez as Lando Norris squeezes in to the top 10. You could hear him sweep on the throttle pedal. He didn't stamp it down. And so the car did not complain at all. Over the blind crest into Piratella. Be careful not to run wide. No problem there. Just ease off the throttle on the way in. This is where the main part of the corner is at the foot of the hill. Left-hand turn up there that a Formula 1 car just ignores. Bring it to the left-hand side and spot those two kerbs now. And if you've got good single wheel movement on the suspension and you can just unload the car nicely as you're going through there, as Hamilton did. Down into Rabazza then. Two corners to go. And you carry a lot of speed. Whoa, right up against the edge. And ducks into that. Was over the edge, wasn't it? He might just get away with that. He'd have lost a little bit of perch. A bit of traction through the exit. But it's a 13.7. And already his teammate Valtteri Bottas was going quicker through the first two sectors. We'll wait to see him cross the line now as Ricciardo, fourth fastest overall on a used set of softs, as was Carlos Sainz. And Valtteri Bottas goes behind his teammate. Lost a couple of tenths of a second to Hamilton in the final sector. Verstappen goes third fastest ahead of Gasly and Fiat. Fifth fastest. Here now comes Alex Albon. Can he put this Red Bull on the second row alongside his teammate? He can put it into fifth. Behind Pierre Gasly splits the Alfa Tauris. Lando Norris will be next to cross the line. And he does so and goes sixth fastest. So Lando Norris into the top six. Charles Leclerc next for Ferrari. Fourth, of course, on the grid. Last time out. Sixth fastest here at the moment. Adi Müller for Ferrari. Hamilton with 97 career poles. Nine poles in 2020. Three poles for Valtteri Bottas. Can Bottas find the missing few hundredths then and claim pole position for himself at Mercedes for this weekend? I can't help but feel that Hamilton's got a quarter of a second in his pocket as well from that first lap. So Bottas has got to pull out something pretty spectacular. And a 23.4 first sector matches and slightly beats his teammate on this lap. As it was on their first flying laps in Q3 as well. Bottas ahead after the first sector. And the two Mercedes comfortably ahead of the rest. Gasly's 23.7 for the first sector. Particularly impressive matches. Max Verstappen's 23.7 as well. To 25.5 for Lewis Hamilton through the middle sector. To 25.4 for Valtteri Bottas through the middle sector. So Bottas still ahead then of Hamilton on this particular lap. We carry on then with Bottas down towards Rivazza where Hamilton is just exiting the final part of that corner. Hamilton, who is here, wanting pole position. And it's a 1.13.7. Can Bottas snatch pole for Mercedes? Crosses the line. He's done it by nine one hundredths. Valtteri Bottas takes the pole position for Mercedes who have a front row lockout once again. Nobody else is coming within seven or eight tenths of Mercedes in this qualifying session, but it's Bottas that claims it for this week. Verstappen then. Can he go that little bit better than he managed in the first run? He can, but he stays third fastest. Pierre Gasly will stay on that second row with him. Daniel Ricciardo right up there as well. Fifth place for Renault. Alex Albon gets a time on the board. Sixth fastest for him. It's Charles Leclerc, seventh for Ferrari, ahead of Fiat, Norris and Carlos Sainz. The pole plaudits go to Valtteri Bottas.