Chares Leclerc secured pole position ahead of McLaren driver Oscar Piastri who walked away disappointed from the session. It was a great day for the Ferrari with Carlos Sainz finished P3 in the session giving Ferrari one of their best starts of the season. Leclerc said, “I’m satisfied with my lap today. This is a track I’ve always felt comfortable on and I’ve been happy with the feeling in the car from the start of the weekend. We barely changed anything from FP1 in terms of set-up, which is quite rare, and I knew that the confidence was there. Tomorrow will be a long race and tire management will be key, so we will focus on that and give it our all to bring home another victory for our team.”
Gasly is Disqualified for Over Fuel Flow Breach
The FIA stewards summoned Gasly and Alpine for discussion surrounding the finding regarding an alleged breach noting Article 5.2.3 of the FIA Formula One Technical Regulations – regarding the exceedance of the instantaneous fuel mass flow. The statement read.
“The Technical Delegate reported that Car 10 [Gasly] exceeded the permitted 100Kg/h fuel mass flow on the final timed lap of Q2,” read the note from the stewards confirming the Alpine driver’s disqualification.
“The team representatives explained that they had an unexpected short duration technical fault that raised the fuel mass flow greater than expected in a transient fashion. The cause was agreed by the FIA technical staff.
“That the fuel mass flow was greater than the limit at that moment was not disputed by the competitor. The competitor demonstrated to the Stewards that the technical fault resulted in a slower lap time and that no performance advantage was obtained at that moment. Thus, they argue, this should be taken into mitigation. They also noted that the great rarity of breaches of this article demonstrates that this is not part of their strategy, and that the scale of the transient simply exceeded the margin they maintain to prevent a breach.”
Looking ahead to the race tomorrow, the car seemed to improve each session and the pace looked more promising over the long runs. It’ll be a tough race from where we’re starting tomorrow. This track has shown in the past that opportunities can quickly present themselves to move up the order and we need to be there to capitalize on it.”
Qualifying Results
| Pos | No | Driver | Car | Q1 | Q2 | Q3 | Laps |
|---|
| 1 | 16 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | 1:42.775 | 1:42.056 | 1:41.365 | 20 |
| 2 | 81 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren Mercedes | 1:43.033 | 1:42.598 | 1:41.686 | 19 |
| 3 | 55 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | 1:43.357 | 1:42.503 | 1:41.805 | 23 |
| 4 | 11 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT | 1:43.213 | 1:42.263 | 1:41.813 | 15 |
| 5 | 63 | George Russell | Mercedes | 1:43.139 | 1:42.329 | 1:41.874 | 20 |
| 6 | 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull Racing Honda RBPT | 1:43.097 | 1:42.042 | 1:42.023 | 20 |
| 7 | 44 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | 1:43.089 | 1:42.765 | 1:42.289 | 22 |
| 8 | 14 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes | 1:43.472 | 1:42.426 | 1:42.369 | 19 |
| 9 | 43 | Franco Colapinto | Williams Mercedes | 1:43.138 | 1:42.473 | 1:42.530 | 20 |
| 10 | 23 | Alexander Albon | Williams Mercedes | 1:42.899 | 1:42.840 | 1:42.859 | 19 |
| 11 | 50 | Oliver Bearman | Haas Ferrari | 1:43.471 | 1:42.968 | | 14 |
| 12 | 22 | Yuki Tsunoda | RB Honda RBPT | 1:43.337 | 1:43.035 | | 16 |
| DQ | 10 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine Renault | | | | 0 |
| 13 | 27 | Nico Hulkenberg | Haas Ferrari | 1:43.101 | 1:43.191 | | 14 |
| 14 | 18 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin Aramco Mercedes | 1:43.370 | 1:43.404 | | 14 |
| 15 | 3 | Daniel Ricciardo | RB Honda RBPT | 1:43.547 | | | 9 |
| 16 | 4 | Lando Norris | McLaren Mercedes | 1:43.609 | | | 7 |
| 17 | 77 | Valtteri Bottas | Kick Sauber Ferrari | 1:43.618 | | | 7 |
| 18 | 24 | Zhou Guanyu | Kick Sauber Ferrari | 1:44.246 | | | 10 |
| 19 | 31 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine Renault | 1:44.504 | | | 8 |
| Note – Gasly disqualified for a technical nonconformity. |