Spielberg bei Knittelfeld (Austria) (AFP)

The Briton Lewis Hamilton (Mercedes) opened his pole position counter in 2020 by taking in the rain on Saturday that of the Formula 1 Grand Prix of Styria, behind closed doors on the Red Bull Ring in Spielberg, Austria.

At the start of the second race of the season on Sunday, he will be accompanied on the front line by the Dutchman Max Verstappen (Red Bull) and will overtake the Spaniard Carlos Sainz Jr (McLaren) and the Finnish Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes).

Among the best - if not the best - in the rain, Hamilton, campaigning to tie the record for seven world titles by Michael Schumacher, dominated these qualifications unanimously considered very difficult with a good gap of 1 sec 216/1000 on Verstappen.

The rest of the top 10 consists of the French Esteban Ocon (Renault), the British Lando Norris (McLaren) penalized by three places on the grid, the Thai Alexander Albon (Red Bull), the French Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri), the Australian Daniel Ricciardo (Renault) and finally German Sebastian Vettel (Ferrari).

It was the latter last week, already on the Red Bull Ring, the turn this time of Monegasque Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) to fail at the gates of the top 10, only 11th.

After leaving the track at the very start of qualifying, the third Frenchman, Romain Grosjean (Haas), will be last on the grid.

The qualifying session started 45 minutes late because of the rain falling on the circuit since morning.

Free practice 3, which was to take place between 12 noon and 1 p.m., was canceled due to bad weather, after being postponed for the first time.

The race will start at 3.10 p.m. (1.10 p.m. GMT) Sunday, dry weather forecast.

The F1 season started last Sunday on the same circuit, more than three months late due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Bottas won this first run ahead of Leclerc and Norris, with Hamilton only finishing 4th after receiving penalties for causing a collision during the GP and making an error in qualifying.

© 2020 AFP