Q2 – A flyer from Verstappen while Alonso exits
The Alpines of Ocon and Gasly were the first to head out on track as the clock started to tick down for 15 minutes of Q2, with the team having enjoyed an increasing number of Q3 appearances in recent times.
“I picked up a lot of bouncing,” reported Sainz after recording a lap in the Ferrari, a comment that might raise some concerns for the Scuderia. Meanwhile the action picked up amongst the rest of the field as Verstappen returned to the top on an impressive time of 1m 04.577s, half a second clear of Russell and Piastri.
While Sainz slotted into second, his countryman Alonso looked to be struggling to get out of the elimination zone, having reported that he “nearly crashed” his Aston Martin in Turns 7 and 10 on his flying lap.
There was trouble for Hulkenberg, with the Haas driver set to be investigated post-session after getting ahead of Perez in the busy pit lane queue. Not ideal for the German, who picked up a time penalty in the Sprint earlier in the day following an incident with Alonso.
Despite his flyer earlier on, Verstappen retuned to the track on fresh rubber and bettered his time with a lap of 1m 04.469s. Further back, Hulkenberg lifted himself up into ninth, but the RB pair of Ricciardo and Tsunoda found themselves out in P11 and P14, while Magnussen, Gasly and Alonso also failed to make it through.
Knocked out: Ricciardo, Magnussen, Gasly, Tsunoda, Alonso
