70th Anniversary GP: Quali per sector

Let’s take a quick look at the fastest sectors done during the 70th Anniversary GP qualifying session.

Methodology

A very simple analysis was done. 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.

Delta to leader per sector

We saw a small surprise with Valtteri Bottas beating Lewis Hamilton for pole at the Silverstone track. Bottas and Hamilton had the exact same time in the first sector, and Hamilton was 15 hundredths of a second faster than Bottas in sector 3. Valtteri was able to take pole away from the local favourite in S2, where he outpaced Lewis by the slim margin of 78 thousands of a second.

What a fantastic session for Nico Hulkenberg. The German driver was just 22 thousands of a second slower than the Mercedes drivers in S1, and took the spot as the 3rd fastest driver in S2. Even without the best sector 3, Nico was able to get a second row start for tomorrow’s race.

Another difficult day at the office for Red Bull. Max classified to Q3 with the  hard tires, meaning that he will be able to try an alternative strategy for tomorrow’s race. They seem, however, to lack the pace to challenge for the win right now. Max Verstappen was beaten by the Racing Point drivers in sectors 1 and 2, and by Daniel Ricciardo and Pierre Gasly in sector 3. Alex Albon didn’t do much better and will only be starting from 10th place.

For Ferrari, we see more of the same. Charles Leclerc found some pace in S1, but was terrible in S3, being even outpaced by Romain Grosjean in a much slower Haas.

Final remarks

Mercedes continues to dominate the quali sessions of the current Formula 1 season. They are the fastest over the course of the lap, and the fastest in each of the track sectors. At the moment, they are untouchable.

Red Bull and Racing Point seem to be the fastest teams in quali trim, with perhaps the Austrian team having the slight advantage due to the talent of Max Verstappen. Still, Nico outpaced Max by a fraction of a second and will start in the second row tomorrow.

Ferrari’s season seems completely lost already. They have no speed in any particular sector, and are fighting just to get into Q2. A horrible year awaits the Scuderia.

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