Hamilton will start ahead of Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas and Red Bull’s Max 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.
Bottas set the initial benchmark at 1m16.610s, which was quickly beaten by Hamilton with 1m16.424s and then Verstappen on 1m16.214s, which put him two tenths clear of the Mercedes duo.
Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz was fourth fastest but could be in trouble for impeding at Turn 1 after his team sent him out into some fast-lap traffic.
Falling at the first hurdle were AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda, Williams duo George Russell and Nicholas Latifi, and the Haases of Nikita Mazepin and Mick Schumacher, the latter failing to run after his big crash in FP3.
In Q2, the pole position hunters used medium tyres on their first runs. Hamilton produced 1m16.553s, a time that Verstappen couldn’t match by two tenths. Bottas was third, ahead of the second Red Bull of Sergio Perez.
Those seeking a spot in Q3 on soft tyres then intervened, with Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel going third ahead of Pierre Gasly of AlphaTauri. Fernando Alonso went third for Alpine, just 0.3s off the pace.
Charles Leclerc then took P2 for Ferrari, seconds before teammate Sainz lost control at the final corner and slammed into the tyrewall, causing a red flag.
At the restart, Verstappen ditched his mediums for softs, dropping the P1 time to 1m15.650s. McLaren’s Lando Norris jumped up to P2, ahead of Gasly, Perez and Alonso. Hamilton was sixth, ahead of Leclerc and Bottas – crucially, both Mercedes will start the race on medium tyres.
Knocked out at this point were McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo (by 0.077s), Lance Stroll (Aston Martin), the Alfa Romeos of Kimi Raikkonen and Antonio Giovinazzi, and Sainz.
In the top-10 shootout, Verstappen set the bar in the first runs at 1m15.984s with Bottas beating that with 1m15.734, and then Hamilton taking provisional pole at 1m15.419s – over half a second up on Verstappen in third, who was unhappy with the level of grip on this set of tyres. Perez was fourth, ahead of Leclerc.
On the second runs, track conditions appeared to be worse as only Verstappen improved to 1m15.840s, but that wasn’t enough to move up from third. Hamilton thus took pole by three tenths over Bottas. Perez was fourth, but didn’t make line in time for his second run due to Hamilton holding up the Red Bulls on the out lap.
Gasly will start fifth, ahead of Norris, Leclerc, Esteban Ocon (Alpine), Alonso and Vettel.
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