Mick Schumacher kindly crashed his car in the morning's practice and was unable to participate in Qualifying, giving other drivers the chance to get through to Q2 or even 3....oh no, sorry, he drives a Haas. Did Papa Mazepin slip him a few Euros...
There were no real surprises in the first session of Qualifying, although Russell failed to get through for the first time this season. It was a scrappy lap though.
In the second session, Sainz brought out the red flag to halt the running, "I crashed. I'm sorry". It was driver error, he kept the engine running and got going to get back to the pits, the race director brought out the red flag, possibly prematurely, before his front wing fell off and his front tires went over and the whole car was stuck. This track is a Ferrari track, so a major setback for the team.
Raikkonen managed 13th, which I would say shows that experience and track knowledge is valuable here, Vettel and Alonso also running well. A huge mistake cost Ricciardo entry to the final session and he starts 11th.
The final session played out as expected. The Mercedes were dominant and were placed first and second with the Red Bulls failing to get Perez across the line in time to put in a final quick lap (yet he still starts 4th, so no change really). Gasly in P5 is impressive though. Pierre must be pleased that he made it back to the Red Bull B Team that is Alpha Tauri after his stint at Red Bull and not in crime scene recreation like Alex Albon (who had to replicate Verstappen's track position to make a (failed) point to the stewards).
My final thoughts of Rosberg as a commentator to follow tomorrow.
Race predictions are: Hamilton for the win, Bottas for the surprise win (arf arf) and Gasly for the very surprising win.
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