Lando Norris takes pole in a classification full of red flags

Lando Norris takes pole position with a time of 1:23.40 and will start on the front row alongside Mercedes driver George Russell.

Photo : Mclaren 

The session could not take place yesterday due to heavy rain. However, qualifying took place today, just a few hours before the race. It was a session with a wet track, in which the drivers had to start with tires from the full wet range.

From the first part of the session, we knew it was going to be quite complicated. We had five red flags caused by accidents.

In the first part of the session, we had the first red flag due to the accident of Franco Colapinto, Williams driver. It was a surprising first stage in which Hamilton, Bearman, Colapinto, Hülkenberg and Zhou were eliminated. Furthermore, the British driver who took pole was almost eliminated in that first part of the session.

In the second part of qualifying, the drivers changed tires from full wet to intermediate as the rain subsided and track conditions improved. In this stage there were two red flags: the first, caused by Carlos Sainz, who damaged the entire rear part of his car; and the second, caused by Lance Stroll, who broke the front wing in the final minutes. This prevented several drivers from completing their fastest lap, leaving them eliminated, as was the case of Max Verstappen and Checo Pérez. Additionally, Verstappen will start several places further back from his qualifying position due to an engine change penalty. Bottas, Pérez and Gasly were also eliminated in this part.

In the last part of the classification the last two red flags occurred: the first caused by Alonso and the second by Alex Albon, whose strong crash calls into question his participation in the race that will be held in a few hours.

The big surprises were the excellent performances of Esteban Ocon, Alpine driver, and Tsunoda and Lawson, both Visa Cash App Racing Bulls drivers. They are very well positioned for the race.

From the last minutes of the second half, Lando Norris led the session with a great performance. Thanks to this, he managed to secure pole position in the last phase of qualifying.

The order of the first rows is: 

Lando Norris - George Russell

Tsunoda - Ocon

Lawson - Lelcerc