As expected, McLaren has started the year with serious dominance. In the first qualifying of the season they showed impressive performances, but tomorrow's race will probably be a different story.
After the first fast laps of Q1, we saw names constantly changing at the top, until Lando Norris, George Russell and Max Verstappen stuck there. There were no surprises, and in the end the first qualifying session ended in this order. It didn’t go well for Liam Lawson, who was forced to retire as the first to be eliminated in his first qualifying with Red Bull. The same happened to the two Haas drivers, Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Nico Hülkenberg, while newcomer Gabriel Bortoleto and Jack Doohan recorded laps that allowed them to access Q2.
In Q2 we could see a clear dominance of McLaren, with Oscar Piastri and Norris leading the group. Behind them, Verstappen and Russell followed, followed by the two Scuderia Ferrari cars. At the end of the session, the order was Norris, Piastri, Verstappen, while the two Williams and Yuki Tsunoda also passed without problems, while among the eliminated we recorded the two Aston Martins, Isaac Hadjart, Bortolet and Doohan.
In Q3, the first attempts did not go well for McLaren, both cars had their first lap disallowed, so the first fast attempts showed the order Verstappen, Russell, Leclerc. The picture was deceptive, because there was still considerable speed in the McLaren, and it did not take long for them to show it. In the last attempts, Lando Norris, who increased his speed, easily took pole position ahead of Oscar Piastri and Max Verstappen, while the two Scuderia Ferrari cars were also overtaken by Yuki Tsunoda and Alexander Albon. Incredible.
Photo: Reutres / XPB Images
