After McLaren's dominance in the Sprint Qualifying and Sprint, it would have seemed unlikely that anyone could challenge them for the front row of the grid.
In the first Qualifying session, Norris had a lap time deleted. He made it safely through though. Perez made it through too, which was much-needed. With both Saubers through, some drivers had an early bath who weren't expecting it: Albon, Lawson, Hulkenberg, Colapinto and Ocon. Norris was 4th and Piastri was 9th with Russell and then the Ferraris at the top. Past performance is no guarantee of future success.
In the second session it looked like there might be a battle to get through to the final part but it never materialised. Gasly, Zhou, Bottas, Tsunoda and Stroll went out. It reinforces the gulf between old man Alonso's talents and the lack in his team mate Stroll. Perez scraped through in 10th whilst his team mate Verstappen finally pulled the speed out of the Red Bull to go quickest ahead of Norris.
They were speeedy from the off in the final session, Alonso put in a quick lap on used tyres but had the time deleted. In Fernando Fashion, he refuted it over the radio with charm. Russell set the quickest lap of the weekend. Norris was pushing hard and had a small off. The Ferraris were not quite on it in the end, finishing 5th and 7th. Verstappen did have the ability, after a long break from the front of the grid, to get pole, ahead of Russell. The McLarens took the row behind them. Hamilton split the prancing horses in 6th. The tail of the top ten comprised Alonso, Perez and Magnussen. The Dane is without a drive next year but benefited from a better tyre strategy than his team mate. Will 9th be enough to save Perez's drive next year? He always emphasises how much of a team effort any result is.
Russell had a dig at McLaren for enforcing team orders that morning and over the last couple of races but I don't think he'd be complaining if he was in that position. I suppose he knew that Hamilton would never give him an inch.
As the grid was being outlined, viewers were treated to a shot of Verstappen heavily impeding Russell on track but not given the information as to whether that was on a hot lap or in/out laps. It was hot lap and the top two positions were reversed by the stewards to penalise Verstappen for the move.
I would say all eight drivers from the top four teams would be in for the chance of a race win but that doesn't take into account Perez, who hasn't won a race this year. It would take something awful to happen for him to score a victory.
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