As expected, McLaren started the year with some serious dominance. They put in a stunning performance in the first qualifying session of the season, but tomorrow's race is likely to be a different story.
After the first few fast laps of Q1, we saw a constant change of names at the top, with Lando Norris, George Russell and Max Verstappen settling in. There were no surprises, qualifying ended in that order. Liam Lawson, however, did not fare well, having to say goodbye as a consistent first outlier in his first time trial with Red Bull. The same was true for the two Haas drivers, Andrea Kimi Antonelli and Nico Hülkenberg, while rookies Gabriel Bortoleto and Jack Doohan also put in a lap that would have put them into Q2.
In Q2 we could already see a clear McLaren advantage, Oscar Piastri and Norris leading the field. Behind them were Verstappen and Russell, followed by the two Scuderia Ferrari cars. At the end of the stage the order was Norris, Piastri, Verstappen, with both Williams drivers and Yuki Tsunoda advancing without any problems, while among the dropouts we saw two Aston Martin drivers, Isaac Hadjart, Bortolet and Doohan.
In Q3, McLaren's first attempts failed, both their cars were deprived of the first lap, so the first fastest attempts showed the order of Verstappen, Russell, Leclerc. The picture was of course deceptive, because McLaren still had serious speed and it didn't take long for them to show it. In the last attempts, Lando Norris, who switched to hellish speed, easily gained pole position ahead of Oscar Piastre and Max Verstappen, while the Scuderia Ferrari drivers were also overtaken by Yuki Tsunoda and Alexander Albon. Terrible.
Photo: Reuters / XPB Images
