QUALIFYING

Heading into Q3, Valtteri Bottas was a slender favourite for pole position, having outpaced Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton through the first two stages of qualifying and enjoyed the edge on performance runs in free practice. But come the first runs in the crucial top-10 shootout, Hamilton banged in a lap 0.157 seconds quicker than Bottas to take first blood.

Bottas, under pressure, responded with a scrappy second lap slower than his first, allowing Hamilton to consolidate and extend his advantage to 0.286s. But it could have been so much more, had Hamilton not been caught by a gust of wind at the penultimate corner.

“The second run, I was on for one of the best laps I have done for a long time,” said Hamilton. “I was up four and a half tenths coming into the second-to-last corner but it’s really gusty out there and I just lost the back end – through that or going too quick.”

Bottas was also troubled by the blustery wind that made life particularly difficult for him through the chicane. That, combined with having no tow and pushing too hard in the final sector to make up the gap, meant his second Q3 run was a write-off.

Charles Leclerc was happier than a man 0.646s off the pace would usually be. After recent Q3 troubles he felt he put in a good lap despite also struggling in the chicane. But there was no way he was going to do better than third given the pace disadvantage of Ferrari. And he was far better off than team-mate

Sebastian Vettel.

Vettel had abandoned his first Q3 run after a missed upshift into fourth gear exiting the chicane left him bouncing off the rev limiter. On the second attempt, he struggled during the turn-in phase, using more steering lock than team-mate Leclerc and battling to get the car into the apexes. The result was seventh, eight tenths off the other Ferrari.

That left Max Verstappen to take fourth, barely holding off the Mclarens of Lando Norris and Carlos Sainz Jr that bossed the midfield runners throughout the weekend.

Daniel Ricciardo was eighth, and behind him were the only two drivers to set their times on soft tyres in Q2 rather than the mediums – Pierre Gasly and Antonio Giovinazzi. The Italian put in a superb late Q2 lap to outpace his Alfa Romeo team-mate Kimi Raikkonen for the third time in five attempts.

“I WAS ON FOR ONE OF THE BEST LAPS I HAVE DONE FOR A LONG TIME BUT IT’S GUSTY OUT THERE”