Formula 1: Lance Stroll brings shocking end to 126-race streak

Lance Stroll’s pole position for the 2020 Turkish Grand Prix brought a shocking end to a streak that had dated back more than six seasons.

Racing Point’s Lance Stroll utilized intermediate tires in a wet qualifying session to drive his way to a shocking pole position for the 2020 Turkish Grand Prix at Intercity Istanbul Park, his first pole position of the season and the first of his Formula 1 career.

Entering this race weekend at the 14-turn, 3.317-mile (5.338-kilometer) road course in Tuzla, Turkey, Mercedes had taken 14 consecutive pole positions going back to the end of last season, as Lewis Hamilton had taken 10, including nine this season, and Valtteri Bottas had taken four.

The team had even managed to secure a total of 10 front row lockouts this season, all in the last 11 races.

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But in a strange 2020 season that has already seen the first victory for a team other than Mercedes, Red Bull or Ferrari since 2013 with the Italian Grand Prix triumph for AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly, neither one of the two Mercedes drivers qualified in the top five for Sunday’s 58-lap race.

Hamilton qualified in sixth place while Bottas qualified in ninth. Both Red Bull drivers are set to start in the front two rows, with Max Verstappen in second and Alexander Albon in fourth, and Ferrari had an abysmal qualifying session that effectively represented their 2020 season, with Sebastian Vettel qualified in 12th and Charles Leclerc qualifying in 14th.

With the checkered flag having flown and none of these three teams in the top spot, Stroll’s pole position is the first for a team other than Mercedes, Red Bull or Ferrari since Felipe Massa took the pole position for the 2014 Austrian Grand Prix at the Red Bull Ring driving for Williams.

A total of 126 consecutive pole positions had been secured by Mercedes, Red Bull and Ferrari between then and now. Mercedes led the way with 100 of these 126 pole positions while Ferrari secured 21 and Red Bull secured five.

While this 126-race streak of Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull dominance was not as long as the 146-race streak that Gasly ended at Autodromo Nazionale Monza back in early September, a streak which began after Kimi Raikkonen won the 2013 season-opening Australian Grand Prix at Melbourne Grand Prix Circuit driving for Lotus, it was a streak that not many saw ending earlier today, perhaps not at all this season or even at any point in the near future.

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Will Stroll hold on to the top spot for his first career Formula 1 victory? Five of the seven winners at Intercity Istanbul Park have started from the pole position, including the most recent winner, Vettel, from 2011 when Formula 1 last visited the track. Tune in to ESPN at 5:10 a.m. ET tomorrow morning for the live broadcast of the 2020 Turkish Grand Prix.

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