Leclerc will start ahead of Red Bull’s Max Verstappen and Carlos Sainz in the second Ferrari 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 by lapping in 1m31.909s, 0.474s faster than his teammate Sergio Perez, who ran wide at the final corner having beaten the Dutchman’s middle sector time. Kevin Magnussen grabbed an early P2 for Haas before Valtteri Bottas snatched it away for Alfa Romeo, just 0.01s off Verstappen.
Ferrari then took control, with Leclerc taking the top spot on 1m31.471s, 0.096s quicker than teammate Sainz. Hamilton took P5 for Mercedes at this point, eight tenths off the pace, while Russell beat him on a second push lap on his first set of tyres.
Only the top three cars and the Mercedes duo didn’t run again on a second set of soft tyres, with Magnussen jumping up to fifth ahead of Esteban Ocon (Alpine), Pierre Gasly (AlphaTauri) and Lando Norris (McLaren), pushing the Mercs back to the lower reaches of the top 10.
Falling at the first hurdle were Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri), Nico Hulkenberg (subbing for Sebastian Vettel at Aston Martin), Daniel Ricciardo (McLaren), Lance Stroll (Aston) and Nicholas Latifi (Williams).
Verstappen dived straight into the 1m30s bracket, with a 1m30.757s that was six tenths clear of Leclerc and Perez. Magnussen was fourth fastest after the opening runs, despite suffering a hydraulic issue with his power steering, ahead of Hamilton and Russell.
Sainz then improved to second on his new-tyre run, 0.030s off Verstappen, with Leclerc 0.175s off the fastest time in third. Perez was fourth, ahead of Hamilton, Russell, Magnussen, Fernando Alonso (Alpine), Gasly and Bottas.
Knocked out at this point were Esteban Ocon (Alpine), Mick Schumacher (Haas), Norris, Alex Albon (Williams) and Guanyu Zhou (Alfa Romeo), the latter losing his best time due to exceeding track limits.
On the first runs, Sainz set the bar at 1m30.687s, 0.044s faster than Leclerc with Verstappen 0.012s off a front row spot (complaining about tyre temperature and out-lap speed) and Perez in fourth, ahead of Hamilton and Russell – the Mercs both setting their times on used softs.
On the final runs, Leclerc took P1 with 1m30.558s, with Verstappen going second, 0.123s slower. Sainz slipped to third, ahead of Perez, Hamilton, Bottas, Magnussen (who stopped at Turn 1 after completing his lap), Alonso, Russell and Gasly.
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