Saturday in Turkey: Mercedes dominates, Red Bull looks strong in the rain

Red Bull makes comeback in FP3 Turkey

Saturday in Turkey started with rain, resulting in a quiet start to the third free practice session. For Red Bull the rain was not a bad thing: both Max Verstappen and Sergio Perez did good business on Saturday morning with second and third place respectively.

As with last year, the rain seems to have been less kind to Mercedes: Bottas had to make do with ninth place and Hamilton was no further than eighteenth.

Ferrari did well again with a fourth time for Carlos Sainz and a fifth for Charles Leclerc, but the big surprise came in the form of Pierre Gasly. He ended the third free practice session as the fastest.

Mercedes dominates in qualifying

The weather conditions for qualifying looked a lot better. Rain was predicted, but in the end, it didn't work out that way. However, because of the weather forecast, the track was crowded from the start, as everyone wanted to set a time to secure a place in Q2.

However, the early stages of Q1 proved to be tricky. The track was not dry enough for slicks, but not wet enough for intermediates. As a result, a number of drivers spun off the track, including Verstappen. Hamilton also crashed out, but everyone could continue the race.

Towards the end of Q1, it got dry and everyone tried to improve their time. The big surprise: Mick Schumacher, who could proceed to Q2 for the first time with a fourteenth time. Nikita Mazepin, Kimi Raikkonen, Antonio Giovinazzi, Nicholas Latifi and Daniel Ricciardo had to call it a day.

In Q2, everyone tried to go for mediums. In the dry, Hamilton proved unbeatable going into Q3 with half a second ahead of teammate Bottas and six tenths ahead of Verstappen. Carlos Sainz, Mick Schumacher, George Russell, Esteban Ocon and Sebastian Vettel all retired.

Hamilton unbeatable in Q3

With a ten-place grid penalty, Hamilton had a clear mission: pole position. Bottas initially looked set to make a run for it, but with a few minutes to go Hamilton slipped under his time to take first place. Bottas had to settle for second place but moved up to pole position on Sunday. Verstappen finished third and moves up to second on the grid, followed by Leclerc and Gasly.