It was Lance Stroll who took a shock pole position. Racing Point took a gamble to put both drivers on intermediate tyres. Everyone else responded but could not get on top of Lance. Not even Max Verstappen who looked to be favourite for pole, but could not get on top of the intermediate tyres. Sergio Perez lost his chance for pole when he blew it at Turn 7 when he went off, ahead of Alexander Albon in fourth place. Daniel Ricciardo qualified in fifth for Renault ahead of Lewis Hamilton. The highest Mercedes on the grid, their 100% streak in 2020 has been broken. Esteban Ocon qualified in seventh ahead of Kimi Raikkonen in eighth, Valtteri Bottas in a shock ninth, and Antonio Giovinazzi in tenth, completing a great qualifying for Alfa Romeo.
It was a disappointing session for McLaren as both cars were eliminated in Q2, with Carlos Sainz qualifying in eleventh, and Carlos Sainz in thirteenth. Whilst it was a real disappointment for Ferrari despite showing promise, with Sebastian Vettel in twelfth and Charles Leclerc in fourteenth. Whilst Pierre Gasly qualifies in fifteenth, the AlphaTauri not seemingly working in the wet.
Whilst out of a hectic first part of qualifying which saw a red flag for heavy rain midway through was Kevin Magnussen, Daniil Kvyat, who went off at Turn 2, George Russell, who moves to the back of the grid with an engine penalty, Romain Grosjean who brought out a second red flag by going off at Turn 1, and Nicholas Latifi who went off at Turn 8.
There could be changes to the grid as a number of drivers are under investigation for potentially ignoring yellow flags in Q1 after Latifi’s off.
Here is the provisional starting grid
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