Four Honda-Powered Cars Will Start Inside The Top Ten In Turkey #F1
Both cars from Red Bull Racing and Scuderia AlphaTauri reached Q3 in Turkey, where Max will start from the front row and Pierre directly behind him following a strong overall performance.
After Honda-powered cars locked out the top three in a wet final practice session, the track had still not dried fully when Q1 got underway. However, with rain approaching at the start of the session, everyone had to gamble on slick tyres and try to get laps in early.
Light rain didn’t prevent running on the dry compound and all four drivers did an excellent job to advance in the tricky conditions. Max was second fastest ahead of Pierre in third, with Sergio fifth and Yuki making it all four cars in the top ten.
It was a repeat in Q2, with three of the four cars managing to advance on the medium tyre in order to start on that compound. Max was third quickest with Pierre behind him in fourth and Sergio sixth, while Yuki showed further improvement to set the eighth fastest time. On this occasion, Yuki was the only driver in the top ten to use the soft tyre to reach Q3, meaning he will be on a different strategy at the start on Sunday.
For the first time since the Austrian Grand Prix we had all four Honda-powered cars in the final part of qualifying, and it was a competitive fight for the front rows. Max ended up third quickest but will start from second as Lewis Hamilton takes a grid penalty for exceeding power unit components.
Pierre was right on the pace with Red Bull and Mercedes for much of Q3 but ended up fifth overall - just over 0.1s behind Max - and he will line-up fourth on Sunday. Sergio was seventh and Yuki tenth in the final classification, with both also moving up a place on the final grid.