Lando Norris, McLaren MCL38
Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Motorsport Images
Norris will start ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and the Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton after the one-hour qualifying session, which is split into three segments with five cars each being knocked out in Q1 and Q2 before the top-10 shootout of Q3.
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Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc set the early pace at 1m12.257s, 0.049s quicker than Verstappen. But they were both beaten by the late-running Hamilton, who zipped around in 1m12.143s after a poor first run.
Falling at the first hurdle were Kevin Magnussen (Haas), the RBs of Yuki Tsunoda and Daniel Ricciardo, and the Williams duo of Alex Albon and Logan Sargeant.
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Verstappen set the benchmark in this session with 1m11.653s, 0.139s ahead of Hamilton.
Knocked out at this point were Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin), Valtteri Bottas (Sauber), Nico Hulkenberg (Haas), Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) and Zhou Guanyu (Sauber).
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On the first runs, Verstappen grabbed P1 with 1m11.673s, 0.123s clear of Norris with the Mercedes duo of Hamilton and George Russell right behind.
On the final runs, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz got to within 0.063s of provisional pole, while Leclerc got to within 0.058s. Verstappen lowered his best to 1m11.403s, aided by a tow from team-mate Sergio Perez, but that wasn’t enough to deny Norris, who unleashed 1m11.383s to snatch the top spot by 0.020s.
Hamilton will start third, three tenths off the front row but ahead of Russell, Leclerc, Sainz, Pierre Gasly (Alpine), Perez and Esteban Ocon (Alpine).
Oscar Piastri went off on his only fresh-tyre run for McLaren, so he will start ninth as Perez has a three-place grid penalty from the Canadian GP, when he drove his damaged car back to the pits to avoid a safety car.
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Source: Autosport