Impressive Verstappen stuns to secure sprint pole amid Red Bull controversy

Mercedes and Franco Colapinto went out on track early. The Williams driver spun but didn't cause any problems for the Mercedes pair. Hamilton did finish half a second slower than his teammate, though, and he wasn't happy about the timing of his run. The seven-time World Champion tumbled down the order while Russell stayed on provisional pole. That was until Verstappen pipped the Brit by 0.012 seconds.

Piastri and Perez will be frustrated. The Australian failed to reach SQ2, and Perez failed to reach SQ3 and was more than a second behind Max Verstappen. Red Bull Junior Yuki Tsunoda knocked him out of the top ten.

It's the first time Formula 1 has used the sprint format since the Austrian Grand Prix in June. Six rounds remain in the 2024 season, three of which will be sprint weekends. The other two will be held in Brazil and Qatar.

The session was split into three parts. SQ1 lasted 12 minutes, SQ2 lasted 10 minutes, and the final session lasted just eight minutes. As the session was dry, teams had to use medium tyres in the first two sessions. Teams were permitted to use soft tyres for SQ3. This has formed the grid for Saturday's sprint race where several points will be available. They will then qualify for the Grand Prix later in the day.

SQ1

Verstappen set an early time, but he was soon surrounded by some surprising names, including Kevin Magnussen, Yuki Tsunoda and Liam Lawson. Norris raised the bar by going half a second faster, and Ferrari managed to get very close to the Brit. Hamilton also got involved in the battle at the top as Verstappen ended up 10th fastest following the first run.

With four minutes remaining, his teammate Perez, along with both Sauber drivers Hulkenberg and Ocon, sat in the danger zone. The Mexican moved himself into 7th when he crossed the line. Piastri didn't have a smooth lap and almost matched Perez's time but he had his lap time deleted and was therefore eliminated from the sprint qualifying session. The Australian ran wide at turn 19 and went beyond the track limits. He was joined by the Sauber drivers, Ocon and Albon, who spun on his lap.

Out - P20 Zhou, P19 Bottas, P18 Albon, P17 Ocon, P16 Piastri

SQ2

Verstappen, Ferrari and Mercedes continued to raise the bar at the top of the leaderboard while Norris was around three-tenths off the pace of the leaders. Perez was in an even worse position. He was the slowest driver to record a time when he crossed the line. Yuki Tsunoda beat Perez and knocked him out of the second part of sprint qualifying. Lawson finished just behind Perez. Haas took advantage of the problems for Perez and Piastri and got both cars in the final part of qualifying.

Out - P15 Stroll, P14 Gasly, P13 Lawson, P12 Alonso, P11 Perez