Qualifying was completed yesterday and here's a brief summary before today's race...

How Qualifying Unfolded...

Q1

Q1 ended in the same way that it begain with Mazepin taking an unwelcome spin. The 2nd spin being particularly unwelcome for Sebastians Ocon and Vettel who both had to slow down under yellow flags and were subsequently eliminated. Both of them in fact had double trouble, also getting caught up in Carlos Sainz's Ferrari appearing to stall. Some drivers did improve their times however which will certainly have caught the attention of the stewards.

No surprise to see the 2 Haas and Nicholas Latifi being the other drivers to be eliminated after Q1.

Q2

Mercedes, Red Bull, McLaren and AlphaTauri all confidently sent their cars out on the Medium tyres and stuck with that strategy throughout. That confidence was not rewarded with Perez and Tsunoda failling to get through - a big surprise for Sergio Perez given that Max Verstappen has been quickest all weekend in the same car. Ferrari weren't as confident, opting for the soft tyres which saw both of their cars get through to Q3.

Having done well to get through to Q2, the 2 Alfa Romeo's and George Russell being eliminated won't have surprised anybody. Perez and Tsunoda being the 2 surprise casualties from that round.

Q3

It was anticipated that the battle for pole would be between Lewis Hamilton and Max Verstappen and that proved to be the case. On their final lap, Hamilton went fastest only for Verstappen to light up the circuit with 3 purple sectors (fastest of everybody) and comfortably take pole by 4/10ths of a second.

The Starting Grid

I'll provide an update with how well everybody's doing after the race later today. Lights out in an hour... good luck all.