QUALIFYING REPORT
Blow-By-Blow
Magnussen, who had finished in P7 in
FP3, set the early pace in Q1, before he was
first usurped by Riccairdo and then sidelined
by a suspension failure. The Haas driver
would eventually go through to Q2 in P12 but
did not take any further part in the session
and qualified in P15.
As the segment got into its stride it was
Vettel who established himself at the head of
the pack with a time of 1:05.585. The Ferrari
driver set the time on supersoft tyres and
sat back and waited to see if he could get
through without resorting to the ultrasofts
almost every other driver was using.
Hamilton’s 1:05.064 dropped Vettel
back, as did Ferrari team-mate Raikkonen’s
1:05.148, set on ultrasofts, but otherwise
Vettel went safely through on supersofts in
P3 ahead of Sainz, Bottas (the only other
man to just use supersofts in the opening
segment) and the Red Bulls of Verstappen
and Ricciardo in sixth and seventh
respectively.
Sainz’s excellent lap came right at the
end of the session and was much needed,
with the Spaniard languishing in the drop
zone in the final minutes. There was to be no
escape for the Williams drivers, however.
As the final time arrived, Massa and
team-mate Stroll found themselves lodged
in 17th and 18th places respectively and
unable to find the pace to make up the time
to vault past 16th placed Palmer of Renault.
The Williams drivers went out ahead of the
Saubers of Ericsson and Wehrlein.