Charles Leclerc qualified in third as Ferrari basked in Red Bull’s nightmare session, with Max Verstappen suffering from power issues and Sergio Perez knocked out in Q2 after being left in the pits.
Lando Norris outperformed expectations by lining up in fourth, with last year’s race winner Esteban Ocon springing a surprise to qualify fifth. His Alpine team-mate Fernando Alonso is behind him in sixth and the Spaniard will be tasked with holding off Lewis Hamilton once again after the Briton – dogged by a DRS issue – could only muster seventh place.
But the 36-year-old still had praise for his team-mate, telling Sky Sports F1: “Congratulations to George, he did an amazing job and that is a great result for the team,” the seven-time world champion said.
“Given all that we have gone through that is huge so I am really happy for everyone. It is huge and we definitely didn’t expect that.”