Max Verstappen reigns supreme once again, putting his Red Bull on pole position for the sprint race, his second sprint pole in a row, and eighth in his F1 career.
The Flying Dutchman beat McLaren’s Lando Norris to pole position by just under a tenth in a messy end to Sprint Qualifying.
SQ1
The start of the sprint shootout drew a blank in the opening stages as the track was left empty for the first few minutes of the shortened sprint session, before the stampede finally made their way down pit lane with nine minutes left in the session.
Lewis Hamiltion was the first to come across the line, only for his banker lap to be deleted as a moment of oversteer saw him head off track at turn 1.
After the first qualifying session, five different teams made up the top five positions as Verstappen led, followed closely by George Russell, Carlos Sainz, Norris and Lance Stroll.
It was a tense session for Hamilton, scraping through in P13, eight tenths from his teammate.
Other notable incidents in SQ1 were a spin at the final corner for Yuki Tsunoda on his final push lap and Logan Sargeant beating his teammate Alex Albon for the first time this season in a qualifying session.
OUT IN SQ1: P16 RICCIARDO | P17 HULKENBERG | P18 BOTTAS | P19 ALBON | P20 ZHOU
SQ2
Verstappen once again set the fastest time in SQ2, only the eight cars, all from the top four teams, came out at the start of the session.
The other cars chose to only make one run, coming to track with not much longer than three minutes remaining.
For the second consecutive week, both Alpine’s made it through into the top 10 in ninth and tenth, joining two Red Bull’s, two Ferrari’s, two Mercedes’, two McLaren’s in SQ3.
OUT IN SQ2: P11 MAGNUSSEN | P12 STROLL | P13 ALONSO | P14 TSUNODA | P15 SARGEANT
SQ3
All 10 cars left it late in the last phase of qualifying, leaving themselves with one crucial lap to decide who will lead start the sprint race on pole position.
Chaos in the closing stages meant multiple drivers failed to set a representative lap as Sergio Perez once again found himself fighting the alpine cars, bizarrely in this case during a qualifying session.
All three cars will start ahead of Charles Leclerc though, as the Ferrari driver stalled in the pit lane and was unable to restart his car in time, missing the chance to set a lap by mere seconds.
Sprint Race Starting Grid:
- Max VERSTAPPEN
- Lando NORRIS
- Oscar PIASTRI
- George RUSSELL
- Carlos SAINZ
- Lewis HAMILTON
- Sergio PEREZ
- Esteban OCON
- Pierre GASLY
- Charles LECLERC
- Kevin MAGNUSSEN
- Lance STROLL
- Fernando ALONSO
- Yuki TSUNODA
- Logan SARGEANT
- Daniel RICCIARDO
- Nico HULKENBERG
- Valtteri BOTTAS
- Alex ALBON
- ZHOU Guanyu
