QUALIFYING REPORT
As the clock wound down,
Räikkönen elected to take to the track
again, this time on supersoft tyres and
despite an imperfect run that saw him
go wide, breaking a piece of bodywork,
the Finn climbed to third place behind
Hamilton and Verstappen. The
remainder of the top placed drivers
chose to stay in the garage and all
eased through to Q2 with Ricciardo
being the lowest place of those who
stuck with their first laps in P10.
At the lower end of the order,
Carlos Sainz was the first driver
eliminated. The Spaniard’s session
ended when he pulled over at Turn 14
and reported a loss of power. That left
him in P16 ahead of McLaren’s Stoffel
Vandoorne, Force India’s Sergio Pérez,
Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson and the
Haas of Magnussen.
As has become tradition, Mercedes
were early runners in Q2 with
Bottas taking the track, this time on
supersofts, as did team-mate Hamilton.
The Finn set the early pace with
a lap of 1:29.555 but Hamilton quickly
went two hundredths of a second
faster to take P1. Behind Bottas, Vettel
slotted into P3 ahead of Räikkönen,
Verstappen and Ricciardo.
In the drop zone ahead of the
final Q2 runs were 11th placed Haas
driver Romain Grosjean, followed by
Force India’s Esteban Ocon, Wehrlein,
Williams’ Lance Stroll and McLaren’s
Fernando Alonso.