Hamilton will start the sprint qualifying stanza ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and his Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas 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.
The result of Saturday’s sprint race sets the grid for Sunday’s main event. The winner of the sprint will be awarded with the event’s pole position accolade. Hamilton will take a 5-place grid penalty in Sunday’s Grand Prix following an engine change.
Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz set the benchmark at 1m10.487, which was quickly beaten by AlphaTauri’s Pierre Gasly on 1m10.062s.
Verstappen unleashed a lap of 1m09.329s to go fastest, two tenths clear of McLaren’s Lando Norris, before Hamilton reset the bar at 1m08.824s. That was half a second clear of Verstappen, with Bottas jumping to third, just 0.05s off Verstappen.
Gasly then pipped Bottas, while Sainz went to P2, 0.222s off Hamilton’s best. Hamilton trimmed his time down to 1m08.733s with 5 minutes remaining, while Bottas improved to P2 as the chequered flag flew, albeit three tenths down, ahead of the Ferraris and Red Bulls.
Falling at the first hurdle were Lance Stroll (Aston Martin), the Williamses of Nicholas Latifi and George Russell (Latifi beating Russell in qualifying for the first time) and the Haas cars of Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin.
Hamilton set the initial pace at 1m08.659s but lost his time due to exceeding track limits, as Verstappen went quicker anyway on 1m08.567s. On his second lap on the same tyres, Hamilton went faster still with 1m08.386s, beating Verstappen by 0.181s.
On the final run, Hamilton improved his P1 time again to 1m08.068s, ahead of Bottas on 1m08.426s – three tenths down once again. Verstappen stayed third, 0.431s off the pace, but ahead of Leclerc, Gasly and Perez.
Knocked out at this point were Esteban Ocon (Alpine, just 0.052s off teammate Fernando Alonso), Sebastian Vettel (Aston Martin), Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri) and the Alfa Romeos of Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi.
On the first run, Hamilton set the pace at 1m08.107s, to which Verstappen responded with a 1m08.372s for P2, 0.265s slower, and complained his front tyres were overheating from Turn 8. Bottas was his usual three tenths down on Hamilton, in P3 ahead of Perez, Gasly and Sainz.
On the final run, Verstappen didn’t improve but Hamilton did – Lewis setting a 1m07.934s for the fastest time of the day, 0.438s up on his title rival. Bottas failed to beat Verstappen for a spot on the front row, and was over half a second slower than Hamilton, with Perez taking fourth, just 0.014s off the second Mercedes.
Gasly will start the sprint in fifth, ahead of Sainz, Leclerc, Norris, Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren) and Alonso.
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