Hamilton will start ahead of Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas and Verstappen 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.
Verstappen set the early bar in Q1, lapping in 1m28.659s, while Hamilton went off at Turn 1 on his first run. After a cruise lap, Hamilton took P1 away with a lap of 1m28.466s.
As the track evolved, Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz grabbed the top spot from Hamilton with a lap of 1m28.330s. Verstappen ran again on the same tyres and took P1 back with 1m28.285s, despite a big moment at Turn 2, before Bottas went quickest on 1m28.057s – this despite an engine change since FP3.
Perez then went fastest at 1m28.021s, as teammate Verstappen was forced to abort his last flying lap due to a huge traffic jam of cars at the final corner, while Bottas – who pipped Perez by 0.036s – reported a severe engine misfire and was forced to pit. McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo jumped to third, ahead of Sainz and Verstappen.
Falling at the first hurdle were Nicholas Latifi (Williams), the Aston Martins of Sebastian Vettel and Lance Stroll, and the Haas cars of Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin.
The pole position hunters started this session using the medium tyre, with Verstappen setting the early pace at 1m27.953s ahead of Perez by 0.222s and Bottas by 0.277s.
Hamilton ran again, and vaulted up to second, 0.115s off Verstappen’s pace. Perez did likewise and went to the top with 1m27.946s – 0.007s quicker than his championship-leading teammate.
Hamilton went for a third push lap and took P1 near the end of the session with a 1m27.712s, ahead of Perez, Verstappen, Bottas and Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri).
Knocked out at this point were Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren), Kimi Raikkonen (Alfa, who hit a dawdling Bottas on his final lap), Fernando Alonso (Alpine) and George Russell (Williams).
Sainz was slowest of all, after suffering a huge spin at Turn 10 and brushing the wall with his rear wing. On his final run, he had another massive moment – declaring the car “undriveable” – and he was forced to back out.
On the first runs, Hamilton suffered a huge slide and had to abort his opening attempt. Bottas set the bar at 1m28.143s, with Hamilton beating him with 1m28.035s.
Verstappen unleashed a 1m27.653s on his first flyer, while Bottas improved to P2 at his second attempt.
On the final runs, Hamilton took P1 with 1m27.511s, 0.111s ahead of Bottas. Verstappen almost clipped the wall exiting Turn 2, but having set the fastest first two sectors, he locked his left-front entering the final corner, and whacked the wall properly on the exit after seeming all set to take pole. He was forced to park up with broken suspension.
Verstappen will start third, ahead of Charles Leclerc (Ferrari), Perez, Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri), Lando Norris (McLaren), Tsunoda, Esteban Ocon (Alpine) and Antonio Giovinazzi (Alfa Romeo).
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