Verstappen on sprint pole, Mercedes out in SQ2

Norris had led SQ1 and SQ2, with a time in the middle segment that would have been good enough to top SQ3, but on the switch to the soft tyres for the final segment he fell out of contention on the red-walled rubber – the Briton particularly paying for losing 0.8s compared to Verstappen in the opening sector.

Verstappen’s sprint race pole-clinching lap was not perfect as he had to wrestle his RB20 through the tight chicane at the end of the final sector, but he nevertheless posted a 1m27.641s that was good enough to clinch the top spot.

Leclerc slotted into second just over 0.1s adrift in second – an impressive turnaround after he missed most of practice following his early spin and clutch issue.

Sergio Perez finished third in the other Red Bull ahead of Daniel Ricciardo, who escaped whacking the Turn 16 exit wall in SQ2.

This was something Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso had done in the opening segment, before he finished the session down in eighth behind Carlos Sainz, Oscar Piastri and Lance Stroll in the other AMR24.

In the end, Norris was only able to beat Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg, despite sealing the quickest times in the final two sectors in qualifying – his gap from the first sector enough to keep him from bothering Verstappen.

In SQ2, which like SQ1 had the drivers circulating on the medium tyres throughout, Mercedes had both its cars dumped out, with George Russell heading Lewis Hamilton in 11th and 12th – the latter striking the wall exiting Turn 16 onto the main straight on his final lap.

Behind came Alpine’s Esteban Ocon, Haas driver Kevin Magnussen and Yuki Tsunoda (RB), who along with Verstappen and Norris only completed one flying lap in the middle segment.

In SQ1, Alex Albon’s last-gasp improvement still was not enough to get him out of the elimination zone, before it was revealed his climb from last place to 16th owed plenty to him cutting the chicane.

Albon duly had his time deleted and he fell to foot of the standings, behind fellow fallers Pierre Gasly, Zhou Guanyu, Valtteri Bottas and Logan Sargeant, who therefore led the way in a qualifying session for the first time as Albon’s Williams team-mate.

Bottas faces a post-session investigation for nearly colliding with Piastri at Turn 1 towards the end of SQ1, with the Sauber driver unaware of the McLaren’s fast approach to the right-hander when…