Charles Leclerc dominates qualifying to take pole position ahead of Oscar Piastri and Carlos Sainz as Sergio Perez out-qualifies a struggling Verstappen for the first time this season.
Q1:
Opening the session was Nico Hulkenberg for Haas, crossing the line with a 1:45.021, closing followed by the Sauber duo of Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas. As the opening laps played out, with all twenty drivers on track, it was the Williams due of Albon and Colapinto leading the charge, before a strong opening from Verstappen and the teammate Perez put them top of the timesheets.
Charles Leclerc, a favourite ahead of the session, soon crossed the line, splitting the two Red Bulls with just 0.159s shy of Perez’ 1:43.436. Teammate Carlos Sainz, not to be caught napping, then surpassed his teammate, crossing the line just 0.081s off Perez.
McLaren, touted as the current fastest car, struggled to extract their pace in the early stages, with Piastri occupying P6 just ahead of teammate Norris with 8 minutes remaining on the clock.
Midway through the session, rookie Colapinto grabbed attention in his Williams as he jumped to P3 with an impressive 1:43.545 despite a brief touch of the wall at turn 15. Carlos Sainz was next to fall foul of the track limits, briefly finding a run off road and bringing out a yellow flag in sector 1.
As the clock ticked down and the times dropped rapidly, Charles Leclerc managed a strong 1:42.775, usurping Perez as the Ferrari man jumped to the top.
As the chequered flag dropped for Q1, the track improvement seemed immense with the top places swapping rapidly, eliminated from the session was Ricciardo, the Sauber pair of Bottas and Zhou, Esteban Ocon and shockingly Lando Norris, caught out by a slow moving Alpine in the final sector and running wide at T16.
Q2:
First to hit the track for Q2 were Sainz and Leclerc. Continuing his strong run, Leclerc opened the times with a strong showing of 1:43.422, teammate Sainz however, soon pipped him with a 1:43.225 as both Ferrari drivers ran used tyres.
Fastest on the first runs was Max Verstappen, despite struggling throughout Q1, an impressive middle sector led him to a 1:42.042, 0.221s ahead of teammate Perez.
Midway through the session, both Ferrari drivers hit the track once again, this time on fresh soft tyres. Leading the way, Carlos Sainz improved with a 1:42.503 as Leclerc managed a 1:42.056, just 0.014 off Verstappen.
With 3 minutes remaining in the second session, all drivers, aside from Sergio Perez, hit the track for a final run. With times dropping rapidly once again, it was Verstappen who held his own crossing the line with a 1:42.042.
Eliminated from the second session were Lance Stroll, Nico Hulkenberg, Pierre Gasly, Yuki Tsunoda and Ollie Bearman in just his second Formula 1 appearance as the young Briton narrowly misses out on Q3.
Q3:
With the final session in full swing, Mercedes were the first to hit the track. First to cross the line was George Russell with a 1:41.962. As the first laps panned out it was Ferrari at the top with Leclerc leading Sainz by 0.205s with a 1:41.610. The final remaining McLaren of Piatri slotted into P3, narrowly slower than Sainz, albeit on used tyres.
As the cars headed back on track for their final runs, Alex Albon stopped at the end of the pitlane as the engineers had sent him out with a cooling fan attached to the cars airbox. After a brief struggle removing the cooler Albon managed to get going, however with not enough time to complete his out lap.
As the final runs played out, Piastri managed to best Sainz, claiming P2, as Leclerc extended his lead with a 1:41.365. A struggling Verstappen in P6 qualified behind his teammate for the first time this season.
