George Russell takes his third sprint pole position of the season as he edges to the top of a competitive field to start tomorrow’s sprint race from the front.
SQ1
Championship leader Kimi Antonelli had an early scare during his first flying lap, as he had a wobble at the rear of his car as he went round the penultimate corner. Fortunately for him, he was able to keep the car pointing in the right direction, and would be able to set another time that would bring him through to the next part of sprint qualifying.
Aston Martin’s car looked to have been improved significantly by the upgrades brought last time out at Hungary, but that did not seem to transfer over into this session. Lance Stroll was only able to finish in 19th, and Fernando Alonso finished SQ1 in last place, though part of that may well have been due to a lock up he had on a previous attempt. Furthermore, the straight mode mechanism on his car wouldn’t work throughout the entirety of his final lap, costing him precious time due to the drag and the fact that his battery would drain far more significantly.
ELIMINATED
17. Oliver Bearman – Haas +0.110
18. Carlos Sainz – Williams +0.120
19. Lance Stroll – Aston Martin +0.773
20. Valtteri Bottas – Cadillac +0.854
21. Sergio Perez – Cadillac +0.927
22. Fernando Alonso – Aston Martin +1.396
SQ2
There was a big shake up in the Red Bull teams this weekend as an injury to Isack Hadjar meant that Liam Lawson would be promoted to the Red Bull team, and Yuki Tsunoda would return to F1 to take Lawson’s spot at Racing Bulls.
Both drivers would end up staggeringly close to one another during sprint qualifying, but neither would make it through to SQ3, with Lawson finishing in 11th and Tsunoda just 9 thousandths behind his former teammate in 12th, the two knocked out by rookie Arvid Lindblad right at the end of the session.
ELIMINATED
11. Liam Lawson – Red Bull +0.350
12. Yuki Tsunoda – Racing Bulls +0.359
13. Franco Colapinto – Alpine +0.653
14. Nico Hulkenberg – Audi +0.830
15. Esteban Ocon – Haas +1.107
16. Alex Albon – Williams +1.498
SQ3
Lando Norris would be the first to set a competitive lap time in SQ3 after having done multiple preparation laps, and he would set a strong benchmark for others to try and beat.
The likes of Antonelli, Leclerc and Piastri would all attempt to beat the reigning world champion’s time, but would all fall short, while Russell was just able to pip the McLaren driver to top spot by less than half a tenth of a second.
Russell would still have to wait for Verstappen and Hamilton to finish their laps before he could be sure that he managed to get top spot, but neither driver got close to challenging in the end, finishing in 6th and 7th respectively.
Sprint Qualifying results
1. George Russell – Mercedes 1:11.567
2. Lando Norris – McLaren +0.041
3. Charles Leclerc – Ferrari +0.095
4. Oscar Piastri – McLaren +0.099
5. Kimi Antonelli – Mercedes +0.227
6. Max Verstappen – Red Bull +0.527
7. Lewis Hamilton – Ferrari +0.624
8. Pierre Gasly – Alpine +1.011
9. Gabriel Bortoleto – Audi +1.016
10. Arvid Lindblad – Racing Bulls +1.170
