Formula 1: Mugello starting lineup – Lewis Hamilton takes pole
By Asher Fair
Lewis Hamilton took his seventh pole position through nine races of the 2020 Formula 1 season for the Tuscan Grand Prix at Mugello.
Autodromo Internazionale del Mugello, which was not initially on the 2020 schedule but landed a race date due to other cancellations caused by the coronavirus pandemic, is slated to host its first ever Formula 1 race tomorrow. This track is the first of six tracks on the 17-race schedule that was not originally on the schedule.
Starting that race, the ninth of the season, from the pole position is set to be Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton, who has now taken seven pole positions so far this season. He now has 95 career pole positions, 27 clear of the next highest total on the all-time list.
This pole position is his fourth in a row and seventh in the last eight races, and because Mercedes’ Valtteri Bottas qualified in second place, it is the eighth consecutive front row lockout for the Silver Arrows.
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Hamilton took the pole position for this 59-lap race around the 15-turn, 3.259-mile (5.245-kilometer) road course in Scarperia e San Piero, Tuscany, Italy by recording a top lap time of 75.144 seconds (156.132 miles per hour) in the third and final round of qualifying for the race.
He did not improve on his final lap of the qualifying session, but Bottas’s final hot lap was hampered by a yellow flag caused by a spin by Renault’s Esteban Ocon, who was slated to qualify in seventh place before his penalty for the spin dropped him to 10th and eliminated his qualifying speed.
Hamilton ended up beating Bottas by just 0.059 seconds (0.122 miles per hour), as Bottas’s top lap time was 75.203 seconds (156.010 miles per hour).
Red Bull’s Max Verstappen rounded out the expected top three on the grid by qualifying in third place. He is set to start alongside teammate Alexander Albon in fourth.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc qualified in an impressive fifth place for the Scuderia’s 1,000th Formula 1 race, and he is set to start alongside Racing Point’s Lance Stroll in sixth. Racing Point’s Sergio Perez, Renault’s Daniel Ricciardo and McLaren’s Carlos Sainz Jr. are set to round out the top nine in seventh, eighth and ninth, respectively.
Perez originally qualified in sixth place ahead of Stroll in seventh, but they swapped places due to a one-position grid penalty issued to the former for causing a collision with Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen in practice.
Eliminated after the second round of qualifying were McLaren’s Lando Norris, AlphaTauri’s Daniil Kvyat, Raikkonen, Ferrari’s Sebastian Vettel and Haas’ Romain Grosjean, who qualified in 11th, 12th, 13th, 14th and 15th place, respectively.
Eliminated after the first round of qualifying were AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly, Alfa Romeo’s Antonio Giovinazzi, Williams teammates George Russell and rookie Nicholas Latifi and Haas’ Kevin Magnussen, who qualified in 16th, 17th, 18th, 19th and 20th place, respectively. Russell is now an impressive 30 for 30 in in terms of outqualifying his teammates throughout his career.
Here is the full starting lineup for the 2020 Tuscan Grand Prix at Autodromo Internazionale del Mugello.
Starting Lineup
1st – Lewis Hamilton
2nd – Valtteri Bottas
3rd – Max Verstappen
4th – Alexander Albon
5th – Charles Leclerc
6th – Lance Stroll
7th – Sergio Perez
8th – Daniel Ricciardo
9th – Carlos Sainz Jr.
10th – Esteban Ocon
11th – Lando Norris
12th – Daniil Kvyat
13th – Kimi Raikkonen
14th – Sebastian Vettel
15th – Romain Grosjean
16th – Pierre Gasly
17th – Antonio Giovinazzi
18th – George Russell
19th – Nicholas Latifi
20th – Kevin Magnussen
Tune in to ESPN at 9:10 a.m. ET tomorrow morning for the live broadcast of the 2020 Tuscany Grand Prix from Autodromo Internazionale del Mugello.