Max Verstappen takes his third pole position of the season as he narrowly edges himself ahead of Norris and Antonelli.
Q1
Ferrari had a bit of a worry in Q1, as Hamilton started to fall into the bubble of potentially being eliminated. Fortunately for the scuderia, the seven time world champion was able to put in a strong enough lap to progress to Q2.
Tsunoda also needed some improvement to ensure his place in Q2, with the Red Bull driver managing to find enough time to finish just behind Hamilton in the timing tables at P9.
Despite Aston Martin being able to take some positives so far this weekend with Alonso’s SQ3 appearance and Stroll’s 5th place finish in the sprint race, things came crashing down for the team in qualifying as both drivers were eliminated in Q1.
ELIMINATED
16. Nico Hulkenberg – Kick Sauber +0.023
17. Fernando Alonso – Aston Martin +0.154
18. Pierre Gasly – Alpine +0.260
19. Lance Stroll – Aston Martin +0.380
20. Ollie Bearman – Haas +0.549
Q2
After looking potentially on the ropes for a bit in Q1 Lewis Hamilton would go on to be eliminated in Q2. Fine margins between cars meant that a lock up at the final braking zone in the lap took Hamilton from a time that likely would have been good enough for Q3 to finishing qualifying in 12th.
Liam Lawson appeared to suffer from issues with his car’s battery deployment in Q2, which left the Kiwi with little ability to fight, leaving him to be rooted to the bottom of the timing sheets in Q2.
ELIMINATED
11. Isack Hadjar – Racing Bulls +0.020
12. Lewis Hamilton – Ferrari +0.039
13. Gabriel Bortoleto – Kick Sauber +0.184
14. Jack Doohan – Alpine +0.219
15. Liam Lawson – Racing Bulls +0.396
Q3
Verstappen would set the early benchmark for Q3 by taking provisional pole position, but with both McLaren cars just marginally behind, and Antonelli taking sprint pole yesterday, the fight for the front of the grid was still wide open.
Verstappen would be the first of the front runners to set a lap time, and would improve by a couple of tenths. Norris would follow, and despite being a good chunk slower in the first sector, he would end up just over half a tenth slower to take P2.
Piastri followed, and also had a poor sector 1 in comparison to Verstappen, but was unable to claw as much time as his teammate, and would end up placing in 4th.
Antonelli found himself right in the hunt for pole position, and although he ultimately qualified third, he was only 2 thousandths slower than Norris and 67 thousandths of a second off Verstappen, creating an interesting fight for the race on Sunday.
Qualifying results
1. Max Verstappen – Red Bull 1:26.204
2. Lando Norris – McLaren +0.065
3. Andrea Kimi Antonelli – Mercedes +0.067
4. Oscar Piastri – McLaren +0.171
5. George Russell – Mercedes +0.181
6. Carlos Sainz – Williams +0.365
7. Alex Albon – Williams +0.478
8. Charles Leclerc – Ferrari +0.550
9. Esteban Ocon – Haas +0.620
10. Yuki Tsunoda – Red Bull +0.739
