Oscar Piastri is the man to beat this weekend, and it became even more obvious when he stormed to pole position ahead of Max Verstappen in the Red Bull and his teammate Lando Norris. Charles Leclerc joins the second McLaren on the second row, and an impressive drive from Haas drive Esteban Ocon earned him fifth on the grid. Carlos Sainz will be starting from sixth, while the second Haas drive Ollie Bearman will line up in P7. Gasly, in his Alpine, will start eighth, with Hadjar and Bortoleto rounding out the top ten. Below is the full Sprint qualifying report.
Q1 Report:
Piastri was the fastest driver by the end of a Q1 that saw some shocking exits. Kimi Antonelli went out for his first flying lap, however it was disrupted by a rough spin through the gravel, and the Mercedes driver couldn’t seem to recover after that, as the rookie ending in a disappointing P20. Lewis Hamilton also suffered a surprising mistake, one which saw him spin at the final chicane and ruined his chances of continuing to Q2.
The drivers eliminated are Alex Albon, Nico Hulkenberg, Lewis Hamilton, Franco Colapinto, and Kimi Antonelli.
Q2 Report:
Fifteen cars all came out for a second time in Sprint qualifying, and it was Lando Norris who went fastest in Q2. His teammate Oscar Piastri, on the other hand, came dangerously close to being eliminated after his first lap time was deleted due to track limits. However, he managed to secure a spot in the top ten shootout by just 0.041s. Gabriel Bortoleto also made it through to Q3, once again out-qualifying his teammate. Both Haas cars will also be in the top ten, as Ocon and Bearman drove fast enough lap times to secure a spot in Q3.
However, the drivers eliminated are Liam Lawson, while his teammate Hadjar pumped out a lap time fast enough for the top ten, Yuki Tsunoda, George Russell, which makes for a disappointing Sprint qualifying for Mercedes, Fernando Alonso, and Lance Stroll.
Q3 Report:
Q3 was set to become a one-lap shootout due to the drivers all being limited to just one set of soft tires, and Oscar Piastri was the driver that dominated the session, with Verstappen 0.477s behind in second, and Piastri’s teammate Norris even further back in third. Haas, who had not been looking to good in FP1, pulled together some impressive lap times to get Esteban Ocon on the third row, in fifth, while Ollie Bearman was not too far back in seventh. Carlos Sainz came between the pair, while Pierre Gasly was behind in eighth. Isack Hadjar delivered a decent result for Racing Bulls, as the rookie will be starting ninth and hoping to climb into the top eight in order to score a point or two by the end of the Sprint race tomorrow. Gabriel Bortoleto, after out-qualifying his teammate Hulkenberg, rounds out the top ten.
The Sprint race is set to be a fight between Piastri and Verstappen up at the front yet again, but we can’t discount Norris and Leclerc behind. And keep an eye out for the Mercedes of Russell and the Ferrari of Hamilton coming up from P13 and P18 respectively.
