Lando Norris takes his 2nd pole position in four races during an eventful qualifying session that saw two red flags and an ever-present threat of rain.
Q1
There was a little bit of trepidation about the conditions early on in the session, with rain having began to fall just before the end of the F2 race. Whilst the track had dried enough for slick tyres to be used at the start of qualifying, there was still a suggestion that the rain could return, and nobody wanted to hang around in their garages and risk being caught out.
Sergio Perez has had a horrid run of form recently, leading to rumours that he could be dropped from Red Bull as soon as the summer break due to performance clauses in his contract, despite having only recently signed an extension with the team. Crashing out of Q1 for the second consecutive qualifying in a row was probably the last thing Perez would have wanted to happen, though after touching the damp kerb on the outside of turn 8, that is exactly what happened.
Alpine had made a massive blunder by not coming back out after qualifying got back underway following the red flag brought out by Perez. Despite very light rain having fell during that period, the track got a lot quicker in a short space of time, and most drivers were able to make significant improvements, such as Ricciardo going from 16th to 1st. As a result, both of their drivers will now occupy the back row for tomorrow’s race.
Russell found himself simply unable to go fast enough in this session. After winning the Austrian Grand Prix, and taking pole at the British Grand Prix last time out, the Brit was only able to go 17th fastest, even with Hamilton going 2nd fastest. This also means he will start the race behind Perez, who in spite of his crash was still 16th fastest.
ELIMINATED
16. Sergio Perez – Red Bull +0.035
17. George Russell – Mercedes +0.117
18. Zhou Guanyu – Kick Sauber +0.186
19. Esteban Ocon – Alpine +0.198
20. Pierre Gasly – Alpine +0.315
Q2
Hamilton was close to making it a disaster of a qualifying for Mercedes. He appeared to struggle with the car at times, most notably wrestling it through the right hand sweep of turn 5, though was able to just barely eek his way into Q3, 1 hundredth of a second faster than Hulkenberg.
Aston Martin appeared to look as though they’d struggle this weekend, given that the balance didn’t seem right with the car during practice after new upgrades had been added for this weekend’s race. However, both drivers looked a fair bit more comfortable in qualifying, and were able to safely make it into the final part of qualifying.
ELIMINATED
11. Nico Hulkenberg – Haas +0.010
12. Valtteri Bottas – Kick Sauber +0.077
13. Alex Albon – Williams +0.122
14. Logan Sargeant – Williams +0.236
15. Kevin Magnussen – Haas +0.241
Q3
The threat of rain returned for the final part of qualifying, with forecasts suggesting that it would arrive smack bang in the middle of Q3. This added a sense of urgency to proceedings, as teams didn’t know if this would end up as a one lap shootout for pole.
Lando Norris took the early lead in that fight for 1st, not doing as well in sector 1 but making up a significant amount of time during the rest of the lap, going three tenths faster than Verstappen in 2nd. Oscar Piastri would round out the top 3.
Rain had still not yet arrived, so teams were able to send their drivers out for another run, albeit at an earlier point in the session than is typical of Q3. Piastri would be the first of those at the front to complete his lap, followed by Verstappen. Both drivers would make decent gains in sector 1 – especially Verstappen, but it seemed that time was lost as their tyres would begin to lose performance, particularly in sector 2. Piastri was able to claw some more time back to set the fastest sector 3 of the session, but fell short of Norris’ time by just 0.022 seconds. Verstappen was able to put in a similar performance, but would be a little under half a tenth shy of Norris in the end.
Norris had just started his own time in an attempt to build an even bigger gap to the field when Yuki Tsunoda ran wide at turn 5, having a scary crash that saw his car briefly go airborne and bringing out the red flag.
With a little over two minutes left, the session would still continue, with most drivers lining up at the pit exit for one final attempt, though Verstappen was a notable absentee, with the team believing that they would not be able to improve on used tyres. There was also the issue of rain still looming, with light drizzle appearing to be falling in the pitlane by the time that the session resumed.
This all culminated in a rather lacklustre end to qualifying. No one was able to improve on their used tyres except for Daniel Ricciardo, who was able to move up to 9th ahead of his teammate.
Qualifying results
1. Lando Norris – McLaren 1:15.227
2. Oscar Piastri– McLaren +0.022
3. Max Verstappen – Red Bull +0.046
4. Carlos Sainz – Ferrari +0.469
5. Lewis Hamilton – Mercedes +0.627
6. Charles Leclerc – Ferrari +0.678
7. Fernando Alonso – Aston Martin +0.816
8. Lance Stroll – Aston Martin +1.017
9. Daniel Ricciardo – RB +1.220
10. Yuki Tsunoda – Alpha Tauri +1.250
