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Q2 – P1 again for Norris while Tsunoda crash sparks red flags
As the dust settled on an eventful Q1, focus switched to Q2 and Verstappen was the first to set a benchmark of 1m 16.629s on the soft tyre, while Leclerc suffered a slide during his initial effort and subsequently had his time deleted.
It did not take long for Norris to again snatch P1 from his title rival, going faster by three-tenths, and the Mercedes pair of Russell and Hamilton followed Verstappen in third and fourth respectively.
Heading into the final five minutes, Leclerc had still yet to set a timed lap which left him down in P15, while the other drivers in the drop zone were Magnussen, Stroll, Hulkenberg and Bottas.
Albon slotted into an impressive fifth place before finding himself pushed down further as Leclerc moved up into third, the Ferrari man then being demoted to fourth when team mate Sainz took P3.
Just as several drivers looked set to improve, the session was brought to a premature end when Tsunoda suffered a crash at Turn 12 to trigger the red flags. Fortunately the Japanese driver was unhurt, but the downside was that both he and RB team mate Lawson were then unable to progress, leaving them in P11 and P12 respectively.
Also prevented from bettering their previous efforts were the Aston Martin duo of Alonso and Stroll in 13th and 14th, along with Kick Sauber’s Bottas in 15th.
Knocked out: Tsunoda, Lawson, Alonso, Stroll, Bottas
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