Verstappen came out on top after the one-hour qualifying session, with title rival Lewis Hamilton of Mercedes only managing fourth position.
Verstappen set the Q1 benchmark at 1m04.249s, a quarter of a second ahead of Hamilton. Valtteri Bottas (Mercedes) was third, 0.314s off the pace, with Ferrari’s Carlos Sainz and Norris completing the top five after the first runs.
Norris went again, jumping up to P2 and just 0.096s off Verstappen’s best time, and Alpine’s Fernando Alonso took the third-fastest spot – quicker than the Mercedes duo, who both failed to improve on their second runs.
Falling at the first hurdle were Alfa Romeo’s Kimi Raikkonen (who missed Q2 by 0.032s), Alpine’s Esteban Ocon, Williams’ Nicholas Latifi, and the Haas duo of Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin.
In Q2 the majority went out on medium tyres to begin with. Red Bull’s Sergio Perez ran early, setting the benchmark at 1m04.554s.
Hamilton briefly took P1 with 1m04.501s but was soon toppled by Verstappen’s 1m04.208s. Norris took second, 0.275s off Verstappen, his time matched to the thousandth of a second by Perez – on a second set of fresh mediums – a few moments later. Aston Martin’s Sebastian Vettel jumped to fourth, 0.008s quicker than Hamilton.
On the final runs, Verstappen improved the P1 time to 1m03.927s, with Hamilton also improving but was 0.331s slower in P2. Bottas moved up to third, 0.449s off the pace, while (on soft tyres) Gasly jumped to fourth ahead of Norris and Perez.
Vettel was seventh, but ruined Alonso’s final lap at the last corner – which will be investigated by stewards. George Russell again starred for Williams, making it into Q3 on mediums, just behind Yuki Tsunoda (AlphaTauri) and Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) who were on softs.
Knocked out at this point were the Ferraris of Sainz (by 0.006s) and Charles Leclerc (who both gambled on mediums again, and were beaten by those on softs), McLaren’s Daniel Ricciardo, the fuming Alonso, and Antonio Giovinazzi (Alfa Romeo).
In the top-10 shootout, Norris set the benchmark at 1m03.958s before Verstappen produced 1m03.720s to take provisional pole. Hamilton could only manage third with 1m04.014s, ahead of Bottas and Perez.
On the final runs, Verstappen didn’t manage to improve his time but Norris unleashed 1m03.768s, and only missed out on his first pole by 0.048s. Perez jumped to third, ahead of Hamilton, Bottas and Gasly. Tsunoda will start seventh, ahead of Russell, Stroll and Sainz – as Vettel received a three-place grid penalty that drops him to 11th.
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