F1 News

Kravitz sees the pleasure of Verstappen: "He also ruins the Mercedes record"

13 December 2020 at 09:04
Last update 13 December 2020 at 10:04
  • GPblog.com

For this entire season Max Verstappen had to see Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas finishing in front of him in qualifying. This changed in Abu Dhabi, where the Dutchman took his first pole position of the 2020 season and his third in his entire Formula 1 career. Sky Sports analyst Ted Kravitz looks back on the Dutchman's session.

"Verstappen had a strange start to qualifying. He immediately blocked his tyres in the pitlane because he had to brake for Nicholas Latifi. It was all close together in the end, but he managed to go faster than Valtteri Bottas. It's a good thing for the second race in Bahrain," Kravitz explained in his review of the qualification. During the Grand Prix of Sakhir the Dutchman already dropped out in the first round.

Record of Mercedes ruined

"Alexander Albon was okay with a fifth place. A few tenths behind Max, but Albon had to put up with Lando Norris who managed to take the fourth time with a tenth difference," Kravitz says. Where Albon couldn't play a significant role for pole position, Verstappen could and eventually he took that first place.

"Those three (Hamilton, Bottas and Verstappen, ed.) have really been at the top of the field this year. This time it was Verstappen who took pole and with that he also ruined the expected record of Mercedes, that they had every pole in 2020. In Turkey, of course, it wasn't the team itself, but it was a Mercedes engine on pole. That's a big breakthrough for Red Bull Racing," concludes the Sky Sports analyst.