After a difficult start to the weekend the Dutchman put it all together during qualifying to grab pole

Finlay McSporran
Published: 17:12, 18th May 2024

Verstappen broke Ferrari hearts after struggling throughout practice

FP1

Redbull seemed to be on the backfoot heading into qualifying, with even Verstappen himself saying that they were “severely off the pace”. However this lack off pace seemed to disappear during qualifying as Verstappen topped Q1 with Charles Leclerc in 2nd and Nico Hulkenberg in 3rd after briefly putting his Haas P1 before Verstappen knocked him off.

But the big surprise of qualifying was Fernando Alonso, who struggled to put together a competitive lap and thus qualified P20 to go out in Q1 along with Magnussen, Zhou, Sargeant and Bottas.

FP2

The big surprise of Q2 was Sergio Perez, who seemed to be back to his 2023 self as he failed to make Q3, setting a lap that was only good enough for P11, behind both RB’s who managed to progress through to Q3 along with Nico Hulkenberg’s Haas.

Gasly, Albon, Stroll and Ocon were also eliminated during Q2 along with Perez.

Q3

It was an all to familiar story in Q3, after Charles Leclerc topped both practice sessions on Friday he could only manage 4th, as Verstappen came from seemingly nowhere to take pole position.

Behind him were the two McLaren’s with Oscar Piastry matching his career best qualifying with P2 ahead of teammate Norris.

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Edit

Oscar Piastry has received a 3-place grid penalty for impeding Kevin Magnussen during qualifying, dropping him down to 9th. Lando Norris will now start on the front row alongside Max Verstappen.