By Luke Pons
The second qualifying session of the year is on the books.
The first bit of drama started in Q1 when Alpine driver Jack Doohan spun off at turn 8, he recovered the car but with 14 minutes to go it put him under some pressure. Oscar Piastri shot out the blocks from the get-go with his time of 1:31.591 setting him up comfortably for Q2. With 10 minutes left of Q1 Lando Norris’ lap got deleted for track limits at Turn 9. His lap would have put him third. With 6 minutes left Charles Leclerc was at risk sitting P19 but he manages to cross the line with no time remaining in 2nd place. It was yet another disaster for Liam Lawson he was a little later onto a hot lap than others but the end time is only good enough for initially 15th which then quickly becomes 16th he then got investigated for not slowing under yellow flag conditions but received no penalty but in the end he ended up rock bottom and failing to make Q2 yet again. Gabriel Bortoleto, Jack Doohan, Ollie Bearman and Pierre Gasley also failed to make Q2.
Q2 and it was Mercades who set the bench mark early on George Russel performed a time of 1:31.307 to beat team-mate Kimi Antonelli by two tenths. It wasn’t long till Mclaren entered the mix with Norris carrying a lot of speed and confidence through the final corner, Norris sits top at 1:30.787. Piastri completed his lap just beforehand but was 0.413s slower, although that put him in second. Despite winning in the sprint race this morning Hamilton could only finish as high as 8th and his teammate couldn’t produce much better in P7. Carlos Sainz only qualified 15th but his team-mate Alex Albon creeps into the top 10 by 0.030s from Esteban Ocon. Both Aston Martins of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll, Nico Hulkenberg and Esteban Ocon fail to make Q3.
The first of the possible pole contenders to set a time in this final shootout is Max Verstappen and he finds a couple of extra tenths compared to his Q2 time to go onto a 1:30.925. that was quickly smashes as Oscar Piastri goes 0.222s quicker and took provisional pole. Lando Norris couldn’t go faster than his teammate 0.090s down as he goes into second. Lewis Hamilton puts his Ferrari in fourth as Charles Leclerc goes fifth. Hamilton was just two tenths off pole position. 6 mins to go in Q3 a decent lap time George Russell put him provisional head of the third row behind Lewis Hamilton but ahead of Charles Leclerc. But Kimi Antonelli was still without a time in 10th after having his effort deleted for running too wide at Turn 16. Some late drama unintended friendly fire in the Red Bull family in the pit lane as Isack Hadjar was released into the path of an oncoming Max Verstappen, who had to duck a little right to make sure he avoided the Racing Bulls. Verstappen couldn’t improve on his time leaving him P3. It was Piastri who got the glory his first ever poll in F1 The Australian delivered a very impressive final sector to improve 0.062s on his previous benchmark, ending with a pole time of 1:30.641.
But it’s not a second successive McLaren front-row as George Russell has just came from nowhere with a huge final lap to get into second and relegate Lando Norris to third. Norris abandoned his final attempt, which left him vulnerable. Max Verstappen is fourth with Ferrari back on row three this time, Sprint victor Lewis Hamilton outqualifying Charles Leclerc for the second time this weekend in fifth.
Can Piastri follow it through and win the 3rd race of his career? We will find out soon enough!
WHEEL2WHEEL REPORTS 