QUALIFYING REPORT
Behind Vettel, Valtteri Bottas, who
also had an engine change, though his
was done overnight, was fourth ahead
of the Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and
Daniel Ricciardo.
At the back it was a dismal outing for
Toro Rosso’s Daniil Kvyat. While team-
mate Carlos Sainz managed to end the
session in the top 10, Kvyat remained
rooted to the foot of the order and was
ruled out of further competition in P20.
Also eliminated at this stage were
Sauber’s Marcus Ericsson, Renault’s
Jolyon Palmer, Williams’ Lance Stroll
and McLaren’s Stoffel Vandoorne.
Hamilton was again to the fore after
the first runs in Q2, leading on a time
of 1:20.210 ahead of Vettel, Bottas and
Raikkonen. As the teams prepped for
their final runs, the man occupying the
final Q3 berth was Fernando Alonso.
The McLaren driver was sitting on a
time of 1:21.510, but that was just 0.007
ahead of Haas’s Romain Grosjean.
Local hero Alonso put in a superb
final flyer to find three tenths of a second
and as his rivals’ final times came in
those fractions became crucial as he
rose to P8 and then slid back to P10. In
the end, though, he held the place, with
just under eight hundredths of a second
in hand over Haas’ Kevin Magnussen.
Eliminated behind the Dane were Sainz,
Hulkenberg, Grosjean and Sauber’s
Pascal Wehrlein.
Meanwhile Hamilton maintained his
grip on P1 after the first runs of Q3.