Ferrari have locked out the first row for tomorrow’s race thanks to Sebastian Vettel’s pole and Kimi Räikkönen’s P2. Valtteri Bottas will start on 3rd.
Q1 was Di Resta’s first contact with Massa’s Williams, since the Brazilian decided he was unfit to race after FP3. In spite of that, he managed to qualify on P19 ahead of Ericsson’s Sauber. Magnussen, Stroll and Wehrlein were the other eliminated drivers. Stroll complained about Kvyat impeding him during his fastest lap and the Russian is being investigated. Pérez made it through with the exact same time as Magnussen.
Palmer was unable to match Hülkenberg’s great performance and was eliminated on P11 while his teammate was 1 second ahead on P7. Ocon, Kvyat, Pérez and Grosjean were eliminated as well.
Hamilton had a session full of mistakes. He didn’t even finish his first Q3 lap, and on his second attempt he could only be P4 behind his teammate. The Ferraris were unbeatable today and Vettel got pole position almost 2 tenths ahead of Räikkönen. The Red Bulls couldn’t do better than P5 and P6, with Verstappen just ahead of Ricciardo. Hülkenberg was P7, but he will start on P12 because of a penalty. This will give an extra position to Alonso, Vandoorne and Sainz, who completed the top 10 today.
