Q2 – Norris sets the pace with Piastri seventh
After leading the way in Q1, Hadjar was amongst the first to head out on track as 15 minutes went on the clock for Q2. The Frenchman was soon joined by the rest of the pack, with all again running the soft tyres albeit with a mixture of new and used sets across the field.
As the first laps came in, Norris went quickest on a 1m 16.252s with a sizeable margin of 0.406s over closest challenger Leclerc, while Sainz was half a second back in third ahead of Verstappen and Hulkenberg.
Piastri, meanwhile, was one second adrift of his team mate in 10th, the Australian reporting that “something weird happened” with his power unit into Turn 5. Elsewhere, Lawson did not get a lap on the board after aborting his effort, having gone wide during his effort.
The New Zealander then dived into the pits at the end of his next attempt, meaning that he was still without a banker lap with just a few minutes remaining – putting him at risk of elimination alongside Bearman, Ocon, Alonso and Antonelli.
Both of the Haas duo moved up into the top 10, but a flurry of lap times were coming in that could change the order, with Hamilton shooting up to second behind Norris. Russell also improved to third, and Mercedes team mate Antonelli bettered his time to go eighth.
Piastri faced a tense moment after finding himself in the elimination zone, before the McLaren man climbed up to seventh. This pushed Tsunoda down into P11, with the Red Bull driver exiting along with Ocon, Hulkenberg, Alonso and Lawson, the latter having failed to set a representative time.
Knocked out: Tsunoda, Ocon, Hulkenberg, Alonso, Lawson
