Valtteri Bottas on POLE for Eifel Grand Prix – but it’s still a Mercedes front row

Valtteri Bottas takes pole position for the Eifel Grand Prix, beating team mate Lewis Hamilton in to second for a Mercedes front row. Verstappen is third.

We’re at round 11 of the cobbled together 2020 F1 season, and this time it’s the Eifel Grand Prix at the Nurburgring, and it’s still a Mercedes front row for the race.

But, for a bit of a change, it’s Valtteri Bottas on pole position, beating Lewis Hamilton in to second place on the grid by 0.256 seconds although, for a while, it looked like Max Verstappen could pip the Mercedes pair to pole but ended up third.

It was a decent outing for Ferrari too – by 2020’s standards – with aerodynamic upgrades seeming to give Leclerc a bit of a boost and fourth place on the grid, although Vettel starts 11th after failing to make Q3.

Behind the top four, Alexander is in fifth place for Red Bull followed by the Renaults of Ricciardo and Ocon, the McLaren of Norris in eighth, Perez in the Racing Point in ninth and Sainz in the McLaren taking 10th.

Racing Point’s Lance Stroll called in sick for the race and Nico Hulkenberg got the call late morning to leg it to the track from Cologne to stand in. Unsurprisingly, with no prep, he finished at the bottom of qualifying behind Kimi Raikkonen’s Alfa and the two Williams.