Sir Lewis Hamilton will line up in 1st for tomorrow’s Grand prix after a historic qualifying session. Max Verstappen will line up 2nd, finishing 0.036s from Hamilton. Valtteri Bottas and Charles Leclerc will occupy the 2nd row of the grid.
Q1
The track was heating up during Q1 and the evolution improved driver’s times as the session went on. Norris eventually ended top of the standings with a superb lap, after having his original lap spoiled. The Ferrari’s continued their strong pace shown in practice and Russell managed another Q2 appearance.
However, the session was not as positive for Tsunoda, who just lost out from making Q2. The Japanese driver was livid as he dipped one wheel into the gravel, destroying his time. Behind, Raikkonen suffered his worst qualifying result since 2003, finishing 17th. Schumacher had a very positive session outqualifying the Williams of Latifi, while Mazepin finished at the back.
- 16th Tsunoda
- 17th Raikkonen
- 18th Schumacher
- 19th Latifi
- 20th Mazepin
Q2
Verstappen gave the first hint of Red Bull’s true pace going 0.5s faster than Bottas in 2nd. Bottas would later close this to 0.2s
As Q2 came to a close, numerous drivers jumped up the grid, including Riccardo who took himself out of a disappointing 11th into Q3. Aston Martin believed both of their cars would make Q3, but this didn’t come to fruition. Stroll finished 11th, Vettel 13th. Gasly sandwiched himself between the green cars, while Giovinazzi took an impressive 14th, ahead of Russell.
- 11th Stroll
- 12th Gasly
- 13th Vettel
- 14th Giovinazzi
- 15th Russell
Q3
It was a poor start of the session for Perez, spinning into the gravel on turn 13. The Mexican driver was very lucky to avoid beaching his car. Able to avoid the yellow flags, Hamilton took provisional pole 0.036s ahead of Verstappen. The battle from 4th to 10th was also incredibly close. Ocon winning out initially.
The gaps were incredibly tight as the cars filed out for their final runs. But, similarly to Portugal, they were unable to improve their times. This gave Hamilton his 100th pole position, by the smallest of margins. Bottas lined up 3rd while Leclerc had a late stunner to take 4th place. Ocon impressed again to take 5th, ahead of leading Spaniard Sainz. Ricciardo bounced back from last week’s disappointment to take 7th while Perez finished an unremarkable 8th. Norris and Alonso rounded out the rest of the grid.
- Hamilton
- Verstappen
- Bottas
- Leclerc
- Ocon
- Sainz
- Ricciardo
- Perez
- Norris
- Alonso
It’s advantage Hamilton going into the race tomorrow. Verstappen has performed good starts recently and will be looking for a lunge into turn 1, especially considering how hard it is to overtake here. However, F1 has had another historic day with Sir Lewis Hamilton taking his 100th pole position. 5 constructors have reached this number, and now, 1 driver has too.
Featured Image Credit: @F1 Official Twitter
