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Q1
As the lights went green, the cars drove out in the intense heat, with soft tyres as the best option. While the Kick Sauber drivers and some, including Ocon and Bearman, picked new rubber, Stroll led the way on a used set. Verstappen and Mercedes were in the garage early.
Hulkenberg led the initial pace, but the top teams quickly caught up. Norris achieved a time of 1m 32.036s, ahead of Hamilton and Piastri. While Norris had his time deleted due to track limits, Leclerc suffered a lock-up.
After Verstappen took the track at the ten-minute mark, he immediately set the fastest time with a 1m 31.424s. Lawson, on his fresh-tyre run, will only achieve a 15th time, leaving him at risk, while Hadjar left an impression with a lap that put him in fourth.
Leclerc, who is now running on new tyres, struggled with the changing track temperatures and only got P10. Lawson struggled to keep up and was penalised for failing to slow down while there was a yellow flag.
Ocon, Gasly, Sainz, Lawson, and Doohan were in the drop zone with just a few minutes remaining. Feeling safe, Verstappen stayed in the pits. Stroll climbed up to P7, Hulkenberg to P7, and Alonso to P6 as the checkered flag lowered. Before Norris took back P1, Tsunoda briefly occupied the top spot. As Ocon stormed to P13, Gasly improved to P15 but was eliminated.
Eliminated in Q1: 16th – Pierre Gasly 17th – Ollie Bearman 18th – Jack Doohan 19th – Gabriel Bortoleto 20th – Liam Lawson
Q2
Ocon and the McLarens chose fresh tyres for the start of Q2, while Russell and Hamilton picked a mix of new and worn tyres.
With a time of 1m 31.795s, Ocon set the early mark before Russell improved it. Piastri and Norris placed first and third, respectively, while Verstappen came in third place, only 0.034 seconds behind.
Despite wearing fresh tyres, Stroll, Ocon, Hadjar, Alonso, and Sainz stayed in the drop zone with seven minutes remaining. There were not many new sets left for Sainz and Hadjar.
Verstappen followed Russell and Antonelli in switching to fresh tyres with five minutes left. But Piastri maintained himself just ahead of the drop zone by trying a shot on a used set.
Everyone but Piastri had fresh tyres at the end of the session. Despite keeping P6, Antonelli observed an issue with his steering wheel. Confident in his lap-time, Norris stayed in the pits.
The cut was sealed by the last few laps. As Tsunoda, Hadjar, and Leclerc improved, Hamilton ended in eighth place. Antonelli got P9. Ocon and Hulkenberg failed to complete another lap, while Alonso, Stroll, and Sainz failed to perform much better and were eliminated.
Albon was also in the top 10, and Racing Bulls had a good Q3 performance. Sainz had difficulties with his Williams, but Ocon’s P12 showed that Haas were consistent.
Eliminated in Q2: 11th – Esteban Ocon 12th – Nico Hulkenberg 13th – Fernando Alonso 14th – Lance Stroll 15th – Carlos Sainz
Q3
The last part of this qualifying session began with Russell leading Verstappen onto the track. While Albon only had sets of used tyres most of the top teams had at least a set of softs.
Verstappen set the first time at 1m 30.925s before Piastri went two-tenths quicker than him. Verstappen fought for P3, while Norris came in P2, only 0.090s behind his teammate.
Hadjar and Tsunoda had only used worn tyres with four minutes left. The Frenchman was nearly released into Verstappen’s path in the pit lane, which could have caught the stewards’ attention.
Verstappen went purple in sector one on his final push, but Piastri stayed up with him. The reigning world champion failed to improve, and the McLaren driver secured his first pole position in Formula 1 after an impressive sector three. Russell surprised everyone with a late lap to take P2, a little less than a tenth behind Piastri, while Norris aborted his lap.
Russell and Piastri sit in the front row, followed by Verstappen and Norris. While Hadjar performed well and placed P7, Hamilton outqualified Leclerc. Albon, Tsunoda, and Antonelli completed the top 10.
After a thrilling qualifying session, all eyes will be on the race tomorrow, where Piastri will try to turn his first pole position into a win and the chasing group, composed of Russell, Norris & Verstappen, will try to fight for the top step.
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