Piastri’s pole came despite heavy oversteer at the entrance to turn four, which he estimated had cost him around 0.2 seconds and described as “pretty scary – turning left into a right-hander is never good, especially when you’re going hundreds of kilometers per hour there.”
Underpinning Verstappen’s woes, the Dutchman was beaten by teammate Yuki Tsunoda in qualifying for the first time this season, the Japanese fastest by 0.009 seconds.
It may turn out that Verstappen’s car was at a disadvantage when he set his best time.
He went off the track at the exit of turn four on his first attempt, bouncing violently onto the gravel trap, the type of incident where the floor of an F1 car can be damaged, although he didn’t mention it in his interview.
He also complained, adding profanity, during the radio session about the car bouncing.
Verstappen said: “It’s not good. From the first lap, really bad bouncing and very aggressive understeer turning into oversteer at high speed. It’s just not what you want. We tried changing some things on the steering wheel, but it never worked.”
“With this balance, the sprint won’t be very fun. It will be more about trying to survive and then making some changes for qualifying.”
Although overshadowed by the title fight, the star of the sprint qualifying was arguably Fernando Alonso, who put the Aston Martin fourth on the grid, an outstanding performance for a team sitting eighth in the constructors’ championship.
“One of the best results of the year,” he said. “Difficult circuit, high speed sections and the car seemed to be in the window already in P1 Q3. A bit of stress in Q2 due to traffic, but we made it to Q3 and then managed a full lap.”
“Twenty-four years of experience, 44 years, has some disadvantages. I get a little more tired with the jet lag, but I know the tracks, the tires and I know how to get it all out on Fridays and then on Saturdays, it’s true that we open parc ferme and we make some small changes to the cars and everyone seems to be on top of the circuit.”
Behind him, Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli was seventh, with the Williams of Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon sandwiching Leclerc.
Hamilton said almost nothing in his only media interview after the session.
When asked how complicated the car was, he said, “Same old as always.”
