Max Verstappen has won the first official sprint qualifying session after he overtook Lewis Hamilton at the start of the race. Bottas who started on the faster but higher degradation soft tyres couldn't take advantage of his tyres and finished in P3 ahead of Ferrari's Charles Leclerc. But behind the top four, the sprint qualifying session was action-packed.
Fernando Alonso had a great start and overtook a bunch of cars to reach P5 thanks to his soft tyres. But he couldn't hold the McLaren pair of Norris and Ricciardo for the entirety of 17 laps. He finished in P7 behind the McLaren pair. Sebastian Vettel was close on his heels at P8 which was an improvement from his P11 start.
George Russell finished in P9 though he may get a penalty after a collision with Carlos Sainz Jr in the second Ferrari. He finished P11 after dropping down to P18, just behind Esteban Ocon in the second Alpine who finished in P10.
The two McLaren's finished P5 and P6, locking out the third row of the grid
Gasly finished in P12 in the head AlphaTauri ahead of Raikkonen who managed to gain some places from his qualifying position in the Alfa Romeo. Lance Stroll in the second Aston Martin struggled to P14 ahead of Antonio Giovinazzi in the other Alfa Romeo. Tsunoda finished in P16 in the AlphaTauri.
The last there were predictable the three slowest cars -- Latifi in P17, and Mick Schumacher and Nikita Mazepin in P18 and P19 for the Haas.
The biggest loser apart from Sainz was Perez. While chasing the McLaren of Lando Norris in his Red Bull he spun off to end up at the back of the grid. From P18 he never improved reflective of some suspension damage in his Red Bull which finally resulted in his retirement, a big loss for the team.
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:30.795
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +1.430s
3 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes +7.468s
4 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +11.278s
5 Lando Norris McLaren +24.050s
6 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren +30.959s
7 Fernando Alonso Alpine +43.527s
8 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin +44.408s
9 George Russell Williams +46.652s
10 Esteban Ocon Alpine +47.395s
11 Carlos Sainz Ferrari +47.023s
12 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri +48.217s
13 Kimi Raikkonen Alfa Romeo Racing +50.677s
14 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +52.179s
15 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo Racing +53.225s
16 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri +53.567s
17 Nicholas Latifi Williams +55.162s
18 Mick Schumacher Haas +68.213s
19 Nikita Mazepin Haas +77.400s
