As expected, McLaren have started the year with a clear dominance. They put in a stunning performance in the first qualifying round of the season, but tomorrow's race is likely to be a completely different story.
After the first fast laps of Q1, we saw a constant change of names at the top, until Lando Norris, George Russell and Max Verstappen settled there. We were not surprised that qualifying ended in that order. However, Liam Lawson was not so lucky and as the first regular dropout he had to say goodbye to his first time in Red Bull. The same was true for the two Haas, Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Nico Hülkenberg, while rookies Gabriel Bortoleto and Jack Doohan put in a lap that moved them into Q2.
In Q2 we could already clearly see the dominance of McLaren, Oscar Piastri and Norris led the field. Behind them were Verstappen and Russell, followed by the two Scuderia Ferraris. At the end of the stage the order was Norris, Piastri, Verstappen, both Williams and Yuki Tsunoda advanced without any problems, while among the dropouts we saw two Aston Martins, Isaac Hadjart, Bortolet and Doohan.
In Q3, McLaren's first attempts did not go well, both their cars were disqualified on the first lap, so the first fastest attempts showed the order of Verstappen, Russell, Leclerc. Of course, the picture was deceptive, because McLaren had considerable speed left, and it did not take long for them to show it. In the last attempts, Lando Norris, who switched to hellish speed, easily got out of a difficult situation and took pole position ahead of Oscar Piastre and Max Verstappen, while the two Scuderia Ferrari cars were overtaken by Yuki Tsunoda and Alexander Albon. Crazy.
Photo: Reuters / XPB Images
