Month: October 2021

Max Verstappen resisted the pressure from a charging Lewis Hamilton to take victory at the Circuit of the Americas, as the teams went different on race strategy after Hamilton took the lead on the opening lap.

Red Bull had to use an undercut pit strategy to get Verstappen back in front, which meant Mercedes later left Hamilton out longer to set up an attempt at sealing a last-gasp victory.

At the start, Verstappen and Hamilton got away from the starting grid together but the Mercedes accelerated much better and the pair were almost immediately side by side as the began to climb the hill to the Turn 1 left-hand hairpin.

Verstappen squeezed Hamilton over the pitlane exit line to the inside edge of the track, but the defending world champion had the line and was able to steal ahead at the Turn 1 apex.

The Red Bull Racing driver hung over around the outside line but was shown to the edge of the track in turn by Hamilton, who raced clear into the lead as Perez surged alongside Verstappen, who had to rejoin from off the track.

Perez conceded ground his teammate into the Turn 3 left that starts the Esses complex in the first sector as the pack charged after the leaders, only Lance Stroll and Nicholas Latifi adrift at the back after making contact at Turn 1 with the Aston Martin driver spun around in front of the Williams.

The top three immediately pulled clear of Charles Leclerc’s Ferrari in fourth, the trio able to run in the high one minute, 41 seconds while the rest were at least a second slower in the early tours of the 56-lap race.

Hamilton and Verstappen also edged clear of Perez, with the leader holding a lead of just under a second throughout the opening ten laps, during which Verstappen insisted to Red Bull that he had pace in hand and that Hamilton was “sliding a lot”.

Hamilton confirmed to Mercedes that his rival was indeed quicker, but, as the pair pulled further clear of Perez who was dropped back to the one minute, 42 seconds, he continued to hold the advantage.

On lap 10, Verstappen told Red Bull he suddenly found himself sliding more and not going as fast as he had been before and at the end of the tour, he was brought in to switch the mediums all the leaders had started on for hards.

Verstappen carved his way by the yet-to-stop Daniel Ricciardo, running behind Leclerc, on his out lap, with Mercedes opting not to bring Hamilton in immediately to cover his rival.

With Verstappen lighting up the timing screens with a string of fastest laps, the Dutchman urged Red Bull to use Perez’s strategy aggressively with a second undercut to stop Mercedes leaving him out for a long first stint.

When Red Bull did just that by pitting Perez for a second set of mediums at the end of lap 12, Hamilton was indeed called in at the end of the following tour, with Verstappen moving back into the lead easily when the Mercedes re-joined.

Verstappen therefore found himself with a six second lead that he maintained over the next phase of the race – the leaders now running in the high one minute, 40 seconds – with Perez ten seconds behind in third.

Just past the 20-lap mark, Hamilton began to turn the screw as he upped his pace to reach the low one minute, 40 seconds, which quickly ate into Verstappen’s advantage.

The Red Bull’s lead was soon under three seconds as Hamilton’s three-lap tyre life off-set advantage began to pay off, as Verstappen even slipped back to the 1m41s as he made his way through backmarker traffic.

But Verstappen was able to respond, gaining back a chunk just before the virtual safety car was briefly activated so a piece of debris could be retrieved by a marshal at the entry to Turn 16, the multi-corner complex leading to the track’s final corners.

Red Bull then went aggressive again with Verstappen’s strategy, calling him in for a second set of hards at the end of lap 29, with Mercedes immediately telling Hamilton he would be running long in response – Perez now far from a threat behind.

Hamilton was left out for an extra eight laps after Verstappen came in for a second time, with Mercedes setting up a significant second tyre life advantage for the end of the race.

When Hamilton exited the pits at the start of lap 38, he had an 8.7 seconds gap to close over 18 laps and during the early phase of that chase he made small gains on his rival, but then upped his pace to reach the one minute, 38 seconds as Verstappen struggled to lap traffic, with the gap rapidly coming down to 4.8 seconds at the end of lap 42.

Once the pair had both cleared the traffic, with Hamilton seemingly held up less, Verstappen’s lead continued to fall, albeit back to a steadier rate, with his team telling him to make sure he had enough tyre life left to defend against Hamilton coming into DRS zones late in the race.

At the lap 50 point, Verstappen’s lead was under two seconds for the first time, but Hamilton’s gains were getting smaller again as he arrived at the Red Bull’s wake.

The gap stabilised for a brief time before Hamilton closed further in with three laps to go – Verstappen’s lead barely a second and with Mick Schumacher’s Haas suddenly a factor as he came to be lapped for a second time.

But although Hamilton was just 0.8 seconds behind at the start of the final tour, Verstappen had DRS down the pit straight as he had been with the detection zone following the Haas at the end of the penultimate lap.

That helped Verstappen pull clear just enough to never let Hamilton had a DRS activation or make a move in battle, with the Red Bull coming him to win by 1.3 seconds.

Perez finished 42.2 seconds behind Verstappen, with Leclerc only ten seconds adrift of the second Red Bull by the finish.

Fifth position went to Ricciardo after he clashed with the Carlos Sainz late in the race – the pair and Lando Norris also engaging in a thrilling fight on the first lap, while Sainz dropped behind Valtteri Bottas late on.

Norris took eighth behind his former teammate, with Yuki Tsunoda, who defied Bottas for several laps mid-way through the race with a series of bold defensive moves, taking ninth.

Sebastian Vettel rose from his rear-of-the-field start, thanks to his pre-event engine change, and the Aston driver claimed the final point after his former Ferrari teammate Kimi Raikkonen spun out of tenth place with a dramatic spin at the long and bumpy Turn 6 right with three laps to the end.

Alpine retired both cars – Esteban Ocon with an unspecified problem at the rear of his car, and later Fernando Alonso after his rear wing “broke up”.

Pierre Gasly was the first retirement when his AlphaTauri’s rear suspension was damaged on lap 12.

So a tense and exciting race at the United States Grand Prix with Max Verstappen resisting the pressure from rival Lewis Hamilton to take victory. The championship fight has been epic and will continue as there is five races to go. Mexico is next.

United States Grand Prix, race results:
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull-Honda 1:34:36.552
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +1.333
3 Sergio Perez Red Bull-Honda +42.223
4 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +52.246s
5 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren-Mercedes +76.854s
6 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes +80.128s
7 Carlos Sainz Jr. Ferrari +83.545s
8 Lando Norris McLaren-Mercedes +84.395s
9 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri-Honda +1 lap
10 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin-Mercedes +1 lap
11 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo-Ferrari +1 lap
12 Lance Stroll Aston Martin-Mercedes +1 lap
13 Kimi Raikkonen Alfa Romeo-Ferrari +1 lap
14 George Russell Williams-Mercedes +1 lap
15 Nicholas Latifi Williams-Mercedes +1 lap
16 Mick Schumacher Haas-Ferrari +2 laps
17 Nikita Mazepin Haas-Ferrari +2 laps
– Fernando Alonso Alpine-Renault DNF
– Esteban Ocon Alpine-Renault DNF
– Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri-Honda DNF

Championship leader Max Verstappen beat his Formula 1 title rival Lewis Hamilton to pole position for the 2021 United States Grand Prix, with Sergio Perez taking a solid third place after leading the way early in Q3.

Despite a small amount of light drizzle arriving as the final runs in the top ten shootout were unfolding, Verstappen and Hamilton were able to gain time on Perez and lock out the front row.

All the shootout runners, bar Carlos Sainz and Yuki Tsunoda, traversed Q2 on the medium compound and will start Sunday’s Grand Prix on the more durable rubber at the Austin track, where the final segment of qualifying did not feature any track limits controversy, after Verstappen and Hamilton had lost times that would have led FP3.

Perez was the pacesetter in final practice and he somewhat beat Verstappen to lead the way for Red Bull after the first runs in Q3 on a one minute, 33.180 seconds, Checo keeping his soft tyres alive best of the leading runners to set the fastest time of Q3 in the final sector.

But he was shuffled back on the second runs as Verstappen was able to gain enough with the fastest Q3 time in sector one – where light rain was falling in the final sector – and then hold on through the lap to set a one minute, 32.910 seconds.

Hamilton’s personal best – where he set the fastest time in the middle sector – was a one minute, 33.119 seconds, which put him 0.209 seconds as Mercedes missed pole at the Circuit of the Americas for the first time since 2014.

Perez ended up 0.224 seconds adrift of his teammate, but he did beat Valtteri Bottas to third, the Finn not improving on his final Q3 lap.

Charles Leclerc led Sainz as Ferrari locked out the third row of the grid in fifth and sixth, with their McLaren rivals Daniel Ricciardo and Lando Norris taking seventh and eighth.

Pierre Gasly and Yuki Tsunoda made it three teams side by side on Sunday’s grid, as they took ninth and tenth.

In Q2, a back straight tow from teammate Fernando Alonso, who ended up out in P14 with a best time in the middle segment 11 seconds off the pace set by Verstappen as the double world champion did not set a competitive time as he will drop to the rear of the field for the race start for taking a new engine this weekend, was not enough to get Esteban Ocon’s Alpine into Q3.

Ocon was knocked out in P11, 0.24 seconds shy of a slot in the shootout.

Sebastian Vettel will lead the three drivers dropping to the back as a result of engine-change grid penalties – the other being George Russell – as he did post a competitive Q2 time, which was only good enough for P12.

Then came Antonio Giovinazzi, with Russell losing the time that would have taken 13th for a track limits violation at Turn 9, and so he ended Q2 without a time set in 15th.

In Q1, Lance Stroll was knocked out Alonso’s late improvement, with the Aston Martin driver one of the first runners to take the chequered flag in the opening segment and missing out by 0.063 seconds.

Nicholas Latifi was also shuffled down the order and eliminated in P16 for Williams, despite setting a personal best on his final lap.

Kimi Raikkonen was one of a number of drivers to have their opening efforts deleted for running too wide through the penultimate corner and his later effort of one minute, 36.311 seconds was only good enough for P18 in front of the Haas drivers.

Mick Schumacher beat Nikita Mazepin at the rear of the field, with the latter incurring Vettel’s wrath mid-way through Q1 when the Aston came upon the Haas going slowly through the Esses in the middle sector.

The stewards noted the incident but decided it did not warrant an investigation.

So an exciting qualifying session with the speed of the Red Bulls very impressive. Congratulations to Max Verstappen in achieving his ninth pole in Formula 1 and what a brilliant team effort with Serio Perez taking third. Title rival Lewis Hamilton missed out on pole but will start on the front row. The race is going to be thrilling.

Qualifying positions, United States Grand Prix:
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull-Honda 1:32.910
2 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:33.119
3 Sergio Perez Red Bull-Honda 1:33.134
4 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:33.606
5 Carlos Sainz Jr. Ferrari 1:33.792
6 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren-Mercedes 1:33.808
7 Lando Norris McLaren-Mercedes 1:33.887
8 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri-Honda 1:34.118
9 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1:33.475
10 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri-Honda 1:34.918
11 Esteban Ocon Alpine-Renault 1:35.377
12 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo-Ferrari 1:35.794
13 Lance Stroll Aston Martin-Mercedes 1:35.983
14 Nicholas Latifi Williams-Mercedes 1:35.995
15 Kimi Raikkonen Alfa Romeo-Ferrari 1:36.311
16 Mick Schumacher Haas-Ferrari 1:36.499
17 Nikita Mazepin Haas-Ferrari 1:36.796
18 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin-Mercedes 1:35.500
19 George Russell Williams-Mercedes –
20 Fernando Alonso Alpine-Renault 1:44.549

Finally a race victory for Valtteri Bottas, as the Mercedes driver dominated the Turkish Grand Prix by finishing ahead of Max Verstappen in damp conditions. His teammate Lewis Hamilton recovered to fifth position but ended the race angry with the strategy calls.

Sergio Perez took P3 giving the Honda-powered Red Bull a double podium. Charles Leclerc and Hamilton finished a close behind after their attempts to complete the race on a single set of inters did not pay off.

At the start, where all cars were fitted with intermediate tyres, the top three scrambled off the line in the order they had arrived, with Bottas comfortably leading Verstappen into Turn 1.

Leclerc made the best start of the trio but stayed third after getting close to Verstappen’s outside before falling back as they reached the left-hander.

Despite the tricky conditions, the only lap one incidents were Pierre Gasly tapping Fernando Alonso around as the Alpine tried to sweep around the outside of the first corner, which spun him down to the rear of the field – where he was involved in a clash that led to Mick Schumacher spinning at Turn 4 on lap two – and Nicolas Latifi spinning by himself at Turn 9.

Bottas led by 1.3 seconds at the end of the first lap of 58 and it did not grow much beyond that over the next phase of the race – despite Verstappen searching for wet patches to cool his inter and complaining about a dashboard error message he was spotting each time he changed gear.

By lap 10, Valtteri’s lead had reached 2.4 seconds – having grown suddenly on the previous two tours – at which point Hamilton had reached seventh after nipping by Sebastian Vettel at the final corners on lap one and then scything past Yuki Tsunoda and Lance Stroll in successive tours on laps eight and nine, after Tsunoda had held him at bay in the early stages.

Hamilton then nipped ahead of Lando Norris to take sixth at Turn 9, as Bottas continued to extend his lead over Verstappen – the two Mercedes cars at this stage the only cars lapping in the one minute, 33 seconds bracket and Leclerc falling back from Verstappen by several seconds.

But as the race approached the 20-lap mark, with Hamilton up to fifth having easily passed Gasly ahead of the Turn 12 stop at the end of the back straight on lap 14, Verstappen raised his pace and began to close in again on Bottas as the focus became about how the inters were holding up.

Bottas also upped his speed as the leaders moved to the low 1m33s, the Finn initially holding his gap at just over three seconds until he lost half a second sliding wide out of the first corner on lap 20.

But from there Verstappen could not close in much, with all the leaders moving to find wetter patches as their inters wore down – Hamilton in fifth initially tearing into Sergio Perez’s advantage ahead before the Mexican driver’s pace improved and he stayed clear in fourth, albeit well behind Leclerc, who continued to keep the leading duo in sight.

McLaren pitted Daniel Ricciardo for fresh inters from the rear of the field, but the Australian did not go any faster and was indeed slower than the leaders, who began to consider if a one-stop strategy would be feasible as the half-way point approached.

Here, Bottas began to pull away from Verstappen again – his lead rising to four seconds at lap 30 – while Hamilton, who at one point had to back out of lapping Nikita Mazepin when coming close to the Haas at the Turn 11 kink in the middle of the back straight, finally reached Perez’s rear, the pair nearly twenty seconds off the lead.

They engaged in a thrilling fight at the end of lap 34 and into lap 35, Hamilton attacking to the Red Bull’s outside at Turn 12 and staying alongside all the way to the final corner, Perez at one stage cutting behind the pitlane entry bollard after the Mercedes forced him wide at the penultimate corner.

The battle continued to Turn 1, where Perez boldly hung on to the inside line and stayed in fourth place, with the battle then superseded by the leaders pitting.

Red Bull pulled the trigger by pitting Verstappen for fresh inters on lap 36, with Bottas following him in the next time around and easily keeping the lead, while Perez came in on the same back and rejoined behind Hamilton.

The world champion, and Leclerc up ahead, stayed out – Hamilton arguing against a Mercedes call to pit on lap 42.

Bottas, over seven seconds clear of Verstappen, who reported a steering wheel “left-hand down” issue as the final quarter approached, initially steadily closed on Leclerc on his fresh inters.

He then gained large chunks of time as the final laps approached and retook the lead with a major grip advantage on the wet line down the inside into Turn 1 on lap 47, at the end of which Leclerc finally pitted.

From there, Bottas easily ran clear of Verstappen to claim a first win of 2021 by 14.5 seconds – setting the fastest lap at one minute, 30.432 seconds on the final lap – while Perez took third after closing in on Leclerc on lap 51.

Ferrari had hoped Leclerc could close back up the leading two on his fresh inters, but he hit the bad graining phase all the drivers were finding a few laps after pitting, which meant Perez could easily take the place with a run to the outside of Turn 12.

The lap before Perez passed Leclerc, Hamilton had finally come in, Mercedes feeling it had no choice but to abandon the no-stop strategy because of Gasly’s presence in sixth – already on a second set of inters.

Hamilton initially got close to Leclerc on his new inters, but then fell back dramatically as he reached the graining phase, to which he angrily criticised Mercedes’ decision to pit him in a series of radio messages.

He was able to hold off Gasly to the flag, the AlphaTauri driver having served a five-second penalty at his stop for the lap one Turn 1 clash with Alonso, who did likewise for his lap two shunt with Schumacher.

Norris took seventh not far from Gasly’s rear, with Carlos Sainz eighth after rising rapidly up the order from the back row of the grid with a series of bold early passes – the Spaniard then also having to recover from a slow pitstop.

In that recovery, Sainz passed Lance Stroll, who finished ninth, and Esteban Ocon, who was the only driver to complete the race on a single set of tyres.

Remarkably given the conditions, all the cars finished – Ricciardo’s early stop meaning he finished behind the Alfa Romeo pair in P13 and Alonso coming home P16.

The only driver to attempt a switch to slicks was Sebastian Vettel, who tried the mediums with 22 laps to run, but he came back in after just a single tour, where he was very slow and twice went off the track, to go back to the inters.

Vettel ended up P18 – only ahead of the Haas duo, where Schumacher got back ahead of Mazepin after recovering from his Turn 2 spin as a result of the contact from Alonso.

So congratulations to Valtteri Bottas in winning his first race this season. A commanding performance in the Mercedes. As for Max Verstappen, finishing in second is fantastic for the championship and he retakes the points lead from Lewis Hamilton, who was left feeling frustrated with the pitstop.

Turkish Grand Prix, race results:
1 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1:31:04.103
2 Max Verstappen Red Bull-Honda 14.584
3 Sergio Perez Red Bull-Honda 33.471
4 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 37.814
5 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 41.812
6 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri-Honda 44.292
7 Lando Norris McLaren-Mercedes 47.213
8 Carlos Sainz Jr. Ferrari 51.526
9 Lance Stroll Aston Martin-Mercedes 1:22.018
10 Esteban Ocon Alpine-Renault +1 lap
11 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo-Ferrari +1 lap
12 Kimi Raikkonen Alfa Romeo-Ferrari +1 lap
13 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren-Mercedes +1 lap
14 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri-Honda +1 lap
15 George Russell Williams-Mercedes +1 lap
16 Fernando Alonso Alpine-Renault +1 lap
17 Nicholas Latifi Williams-Mercedes +1 lap
18 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin-Mercedes +1 lap
19 Mick Schumacher Haas-Ferrari +2 laps
20 Nikita Mazepin Haas-Ferrari +2 laps

Championship points leader Lewis Hamilton ended up quickest in qualifying but due to a power unit change, teammate Valtteri Bottas will instead start on pole position with Max Verstappen joining the Mercedes driver on the front tow.

In a session that was overcast throughout, with spots of rain falling in Q1, the drivers were able to run slick tyres for the duration, with all the top ten runners except for Yuki Tsunoda getting through Q2 on the more durable medium compound, which they will all start Sunday’s Turkish Grand Prix.

Hamilton had come into the session knowing he would drop ten positions from wherever he qualified, with Bottas leading the way for Mercedes after the first Q3 runs had been completed on a one minute, 23.071 seconds, with Hamilton second 0.022 seconds adrift.

Hamilton then took an unorthodox approach to the rest of the final part of qualifying, leaving his garage on a new set of softs with over five minutes of Q3 remaining.

He found time on his second flying lap to move ahead of Bottas on a one minute, 22.868 seconds, with the session’s best times in the second and third sectors.

Hamilton then back off ahead of completing a third Q3 flier, before which Bottas and Verstappen had their second goes and sole attempts to depose the world champion at the head of the times.

Bottas was 0.005 seconds ahead of Hamilton by the end of the second sector, but he lost time in the final third and wound up 0.13 seconds adrift.

Verstappen went through the second sector 0.134 seconds down on Hamilton and he too lost time in the final corners and finished 0.328 seconds down on the best time.

That remained Hamilton’s second Q3 flier, as although his third attempt started with the fastest time in the final sector he lost time through the rest of the lap, at the end of which he was already confirmed at the top of the times.

Charles Leclerc’s final Q3 lap bumped him up to fourth, knocking Pierre Gasly down one spot as the AlphaTauri driver was left to rue time lost in the final sector on his final Q3 lap.

Fernando Alonso took sixth ahead of Sergio Perez and Lando Norris, with Lance Stroll, who made it through to the shootout despite a late off at Turn 1 in Q2, and Tsunoda completing the top ten.

Leclerc’s late jump at the end of Q2 meant Sebastian Vettel was shuffled out in P11 after his personal best at the end of the middle segment was only good enough for briefly slotting into P10.

Behind Vettel came Esteban Ocon and George Russell, who rued a wild slide off the track at the final corner on his final lap.

The Williams driver had just set two personal bests in the opening two sectors and was on to challenge for another Q3 berth, but his successful attempts to catch the slides still put him too wide and he back off after returning to the track for the final run to the line.

Mick Schumacher scored a first on-merit Q2 appearance of his Formula 1 career, with the Haas driver ending up P14 – his best qualifying result so far – ahead of Carlos Sainz, who did not post a time as he will start Sunday’s race from last following his engine-change grid penalty.

Sainz did appear right at the end of Q2 to complete sectors on an out lap, where he was able to tow Leclerc down the hill out of Turn 8 on the lap that elevated the Ferrari driver into the top ten.

Q1 began with the cars queuing at the end of the pitlane well before the session began, the teams concerned the rain that fell throughout the morning at Istanbul and at the start of FP3 would return.

Spots of rain did fall during the opening segment, but not any intensity that would require intermediates and so the drivers stayed on the softs throughout Q1, which was topped by Hamilton.

He was one of many drivers to have off track moments and times deleted for running too wide out of the first corner, with Verstappen, Sainz, Tsunoda and Nikita Mazepin all spinning through the demanding, downhill left-hander.

Once the rain threat had receded, Sainz’s late improvement at the death in Q1 knocked out Daniel Ricciardo, who had completed his final flier well before the chequered flag came out and so was shuffled down the order and into danger as others improved behind him,

The same thing happened to Nicholas Latifi, who had been running near the top of the order during the early stages, and Antonio Giovinazzi – the pair knocked out in P17 and P18.

Kimi Raikkonen could not hit a personal best on his final Q1 lap as he was eliminated in P19, only ahead of Mazepin, who did produce his best time on his last effort, which was nevertheless the slowest lap in the opening segment.

So an excellent team effort from Mercedes. Lewis Hamilton looks very quick and even though he was the fastest in qualifying, the grid penalty will drop him in the mid pack but the pace looks good for the championship leader to recovery. As for Valtteri Bottas, he has a job in going for his first win this season and preventing Max Verstappen in scoring a top result for Red Bull. Bring on the race.

Qualifying positions, Turkish Grand Prix:
1 Valtteri Bottas Mercedes 1:22.998
2 Max Verstappen Red Bull-Honda 1:23.196
3 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:23.265
4 Pierre Gasly AlphaTauri-Honda 1:23.326
5 Fernando Alonso Alpine-Renault 1:23.477
6 Sergio Perez Red Bull-Honda 1:23.706
7 Lando Norris McLaren-Mercedes 1:23.954
8 Lance Stroll Aston Martin-Mercedes 1:24.305
9 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri-Honda 1:24.368
10 Sebastian Vettel Aston Martin-Mercedes 1:24.795
11 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1’22.868*
12 Esteban Ocon Alpine-Renault 1:24.842
13 George Russell Williams-Mercedes 1:25.007
14 Mick Schumacher Haas-Ferrari 1:25.200
15 Daniel Ricciardo McLaren-Mercedes 1:25.881
16 Nicholas Latifi Williams-Mercedes 1:26.086
17 Antonio Giovinazzi Alfa Romeo Racing-Ferrari 1:26.430
18 Kimi Raikkonen Alfa Romeo Racing-Ferrari 1:27.525
19 Nikita Mazepin Haas-Ferrari 1:28.449
20 Carlos Sainz Jr. Ferrari No time
*Ten-place grid penalty following power unit change