Although Max Verstappen failed to complete a clean lap, he won first starting position for Saturday’s sprint race. Charles Leclair remained behind the leader of Red Bull, but Daniel Ricciardo took care of the surprise, who showed the fourth result.
In the first two rounds of the sprint qualification, new tires of medium composition had to be used and in the 1st map, both Sauber pilots Valtteri Bottas and Guanyu Zhou, Pierre Gasly, as well as the only American, Lonas Sajant and Alex Albon, remained behind the line. Interestingly, for the first time in his career, Sargeant was faster than his teammate in qualifying. Meanwhile, a couple of leading drivers opted to make do with one outing on the track and one flying lap respectively. Both McLaren drivers Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri showed the fastest results.
In the second round, Max Verstappen decided to do only one flying lap at the very end of the session, thus taking a serious risk, but the risk paid off and he entered the decisive round with the 4th result. Lewis Hamilton and George Russell surprisingly remained behind the line. Along with the Mercedes drivers, Ocon, Magnussen and Tsunoda also retired. Meanwhile, Daniel Ricciardo showed an amazing 5th lap time, while Lando Norris was the fastest again in the second lap.
In the decisive sprint qualifying round, all ten drivers completed only one flying lap and due to the hot weather conditions, the warm-up lap was very cautious and slow for everyone. With the soft compound tires, the balance of power had changed a little and Norris did not feel confident anymore and showed only the 9th time. Max Verstappen once again set the fastest lap time, while practice loser Charles Leclair was second, but the biggest surprise was Daniel Ricciardo’s 4th place.
Sprint qualification results
Tags: Verstappen Sprint pole Leclair recovers start F1LV Blog
