Red Bull achieve their first front row lockout in over 20 races as Verstappen beats Perez to pole position by less than 7 hundredths of a second.
Q1
Alpine have continued their slow start to the season, and whilst Pierre Gasly would be knocked out in Q1 for the fourth time in a row this season, his teammate Ocon would break through into Q2 for the second consecutive race. Whilst the team only brought minor upgrades, they are though to be a step in the right direction for the team, and such has been their struggles with pace that Ocon celebrated with great delight over his feat.
Aston Martin are another team who had brought upgrades coming into this race weekend, and whilst Fernando Alonso was looking pretty quick throughout qualifying, his teammate Lance Stroll was struggling, and would ultimately end his qualifying early after going 16th fastest.
Another big teammate gap was between the two at Kick Sauber. Valtteri Bottas was able to put his car all the way up to 8th in Q1, whilst Zhou was planted to the bottom of the timings, having struggled for grip and traction through the final chicane.
This session also saw an unsafe release incident with Russell being sent out of pits in the path of Oscar Piastri. Whilst this might have created a few fears of a penalty around the team, they only saw a fine in the end.
ELIMINATED
16. Lance Stroll – Aston Martin +0.061
17. Pierre Gasly – Alpine +0.156
18. Kevin Magnussen – Haas +0.168
19. Logan Sargeant – Williams +0.176
20. Zhou Guanyu – Kick Sauber +0.180
Q2
Daniel Ricciardo continued to face increased pressure ahead of this grand prix due to his troubled start to the season. He did though have a much improved qualifying session compared to in Australia, having provisionally gone 10th place. However, it would be his teammate who would knock him out of Q2 right at the end, albeit by the closest gap they’ve had to one another all season.
After successfully getting through to Q2, Esteban Ocon’s qualifying run would end here, the limitations of his car proving too much to get close to the top 10 shootout. He would be provisionally 11th when he crossed the line, 3 tenths off Hulkenberg, who himself would be knocked out in Q2, before dropping down to 15th.
Alex Albon qualified 14th in this session, three tenths off safety. However, he had trouble putting down on the power on the exit of Spoon curve, which would have cost him a chunk of time with the length of time the cars are full throttle following that corner.
ELIMINATED
11. Daniel Ricciardo – RB +0.055
12. Nico Hulkenberg – Haas +0.077
13. Valtteri Bottas – Kick Sauber +0.176
14. Alex Albon – Williams +0.297
15. Esteban Ocon – Alpine +0.399
Q3
Max Verstappen set the early benchmark in the fight for pole position, going three and a half tenths of a second ahead of Perez in 2nd. Norris would quickly though take 2nd place away from Perez as he set the fastest sector one of anybody, leading to being just two and a half tenths behind Verstappen.
Charles Leclerc only had one fresh set of soft tyres left for Q3, and opted to set his lap before everyone went for their final attempts. Whilst the Ferrari has generally been the second fastest car over the course of the season so far, Leclerc’s one lap was only good enough for 8th in the end.
On his final run, Sergio Perez was flying round the track, picking up a fastest 2nd sector along the way. He would however fall agonisingly short of beating Verstappen, only being 0.023 seconds slower, which turned to 0.066 seconds once Verstappen completed his final time to take pole position.
Norris would end up 3rd on the grid, unable to improve on his initial lap time. He is joined on the second row by Carlos Sainz, who himself struggled on his final run. Hamilton beat Russell in qualifying for the first time this season, taking 7th behind Alonso and Piastri, whilst Russell took 9th.
Qualifying Results
1. Max Verstappen – Red Bull 1:28.197
2. Sergio Perez – Red Bull +0.066
3. Lando Norris – McLaren +0.292
4. Carlos Sainz – Ferrari +0.485
5. Fernando Alonso – Aston Martin +0.489
6. Oscar Piastri– McLaren +0.563
7. Lewis Hamilton – Mercedes +0.569
8. Charles Leclerc – Ferrari +0.589
9. George Russell – Mercedes +0.811
10. Yuki Tsunoda – Alpha Tauri +1.216
