After the one-hour qualifying, which will be eliminated in three segments with five cars each in Q1 and Q2 before the top 10 shootout of Q3, Verstappen will start in front of the Mercedes vehicles of Lewis Hamilton and Valtteri Bottas.
What happened in Q1?
Yuki Tsunoda made an early red flag when he turned his AlphaTauri around Turn 1 and looked at the wall of the tire with his rear wing. Tsunoda was unable to shift into first gear after the car’s rear axle trembled violently as it slid backwards and was out of the race shortly after the session started.
When it resumed, Bottas set the initial pace at 1: 31.669 seconds, with Hamilton just 0.023 seconds slower. Then Verstappen set the bar back to 1: 31.001s – 0.668s faster than the Mercedes duo – with Sergio Perez in second, 0.559s behind his teammate.
Hamilton stayed out for a second lap of push and managed a time of 1: 31.237 minutes to jump into second place but was still 0.236 seconds behind Verstappen.
A second red flag in the last minute of the session when Mick Schumacher crashed his Haas at Turn 6 meant Nicholas Latifi of Williams (just by 0.002 seconds), Kimi Raikkonen of Alfa Romeo and the second Haas of. Nikita Mazepin fell at the first hurdle, along with Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll (who lost one lap time due to exceeding the track limits and another due to a traffic collision) and Tsunoda.
Schumacher made it into Q2 for the first time in 14th, but would not take part due to damage to the two left corners of his car against the guardrail.
What happened in Q2?
In Q2, the vast majority of the field went on medium-sized tires to avoid starting on the soft tires once they qualified for the top 10 shootout.
Perez set the benchmark at 1: 30.971 seconds, a tenth faster than Verstappen. Hamilton then jumped to the top on his second lap of push, going 1: 30.959 minutes – 0.012 seconds faster than Perez.
Bottas was the fastest on his second run with medium-sized tires, his 1: 30.735 minutes being 0.053 seconds faster than Hamilton’s 1: 30.788 minutes.
At that time, Alpine Esteban Ocon, Aston Martins Sebastian Vettel, Antonio Giovinazzi (Alfa Romeo), George Russell (Williams) and Schumacher were eliminated.
What happened in the third quarter?
In the top 10 shootout, Verstappen set the pace after the first run with a time of 1: 30.325 minutes, 0.386 seconds ahead of Hamilton, followed by Perez and Bottas. Carlos Sainz Jr. was the best for Ferrari.
In the second runs, Verstappen reduced the P1 time to 1: 29.990 minutes. Hamilton’s best effort was 1: 30.248s, 0.258s less. Bottas grabbed Perez in third place while Sainz led the rest again.
Pierre Gasly lost his first lap time because the track limit was exceeded at Turn 6, but jumped back to sixth place for AlphaTauri, ahead of Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), Lando Norris (McLaren), Fernando Alonso (Alpin) and Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren).
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