2020 Tuscan GP: The quali session

Let’s take a look at some of the data obtained from the qualifying session of the 2020 Tuscan GP.

Methodology

For the charts of the delta per sector data, I did two similar but not identical analyses. For the first one (fastest sector times of the fastest lap done by each driver) I filtered the data to contain the best lap done by each driver. Then, I got the best sector times for each one of the drivers, and calculated the delta from each one of them to the best sector time done in each of the respective sectors.

For the second chart (fastest sector times of each driver) I filtered the data to contain only the best sector times done by each driver. The rest of the process is identical to the one used in the first chart.

Delta to leader per sector

Mercedes took the two top positions of the qualifying session of the 2020 Tuscan GP. As expected, the Silver Arrows were fast in all three sectors and will look to fight for another race victory tomorrow.

In sector 1, Valtteri Bottas was the fastest driver of the day. His time of 26.848 seconds was faster than Lewis Hamilton’s time by just 32 thousands of a second. Max Verstappen was the fastest non-Mercedes driver but was still slower by 21 hundredths of a second than the fastest time of the session

Sector 2 was dominated by Lewis Hamilton. His time of 20.657 was 8 hundredths of a second faster than Bottas’ sector time on his best lap. Even if we compare Lewis’ time with Bottas’ best sector time, the Britishman still comes out on top with a margin of 75 thousands of a second.

The third and final sector is an interesting one. In this area, Max Verstappen was the fastest driver, with a time of 27.562 seconds. This time was faster than any time done by any of the Mercedes drivers, regardless of the lap. It will be very interesting to see if Max can get a good exit out of turn 15 and challenge the Silver Arrows for the top position on the main straight.

Fastest speeds

Mugello is not a track where the driver with the fastest speed will be a favourite for the win. However, top speed is fairly important to overtake on the long straight seen between T15 and T1.

Carlos Sainz was the fastest driver in this session, with a top speed of 329 km/h. Lewis took second place, trailing by just 1 km/h. It is exciting to see that 14 of the 20 drivers who took part in the quali session were separated by less than 10 km/h.

On the other side of the spectrum, we see Kevin Magnussen, Sebastian Vettel and Charles Leclerc. We know that Magnussen will not be challenging for top places tomorrow, but it is also hard to see Ferrari getting a good result without that required top speed. Mugello is a new track with high downforce requirements though, so the DRS system will be very strong on tomorrow’s race.

Final remarks

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