Turkish GP Qualifying: Lance Stroll Claims First F1 Pole

Racing Point's Lance Stroll defiled the wet weather condition at the Turkish Grand Prix qualifying session to claim his first F1 pole while his teammate Sergio Perez finished third behind Red Bull's Max Verstappen who was in second. 

Verstappen was a strong contender throughout the practice session and maintained the same performance into the final qualifying but Racing Point's decision to change from wet to intermediate tires gave the team the advantage in the final laps of Q3. 

"I'm shocked," said Stroll. "We didn't look too competitive in final practice but I'm so happy right now, I really put that lap together at the end, I only had one lap to do it on the inters."

Mercedes could not make an impact and missed out on pole with Lewis Hamilton in sixth ahead of his teammate Valterri Bottas who finished in ninth. The racing team constructors have already clinched the seventh consecutive world championship title at Emilia Romagna GP and would need Hamilton to win the final on Sunday to clinch his seventh Fi championship title and level on record title-win with Michael Schumacher. 

Alex Albon sealed the fourth position ahead of Renault's Daniel Ricciardo who was fifth. Ferrari, on the other hand, had a disappointing race with both Sebastian Vettel (12th) and Charles Leclerc (13th) dropping out in Q2 to finish outside of the top 10.