Q2 – Hamilton on top, Colapinto crashes heavily

Hamilton made his intentions known as the second phase of qualifying began, clocking a time of 1:33.136 seconds – marginally faster than Russell’s Q1 time – to set the pace, with Piastri just a thousandth behind and Verstappen just six-hundredths further back in third position.

Russell then made his move, producing a 1m 32.881s, compared to an improved 1m 32.965s from teammate Hamilton and low 1m 33s efforts from Leclerc and Verstappen – the latter having again topped the times by a few seconds.

Hamilton recorded a time of 1:32.567 seconds on his final run and moved back into P1, closely followed by Sainz, Russell, Gasly, Leclerc and Piastri, while Verstappen, Tsunoda, Norris and Hulkenberg managed to place themselves in the other available Q3 places to be placed.

Colapinto’s last-ditch effort to get himself into the pole shootout ended dramatically when he clipped the wall on the inside of Turn 16 and smashed into the barrier on the other side of the track, marking the last major crash for Williams after their nightmare in Sao Paulo. .

As Colapinto walked away from a scene littered with rubble, the mechanics will have a huge job to complete another lap of repairs and allow him to start in P14, around fellow Q2 elimines Ocon, Magnussen, Zhou (who emerged from Q1 ahead the first time since Hungary) and Lawson.

Eliminated: Ocon, Magnussen, Zhou, Colapinto, Lawson