FORMULA 1
 ©McLaren Media Lando Norris gains his second pole position of his career with “The perfect lap” improving on Verstappens provisional by two tenths of a second to set up what looks to be an extremely competitive race day. With 30 out of the 33 victories seen at the circuit have been from front row runners Carlos Sainz has his work cut out for him if he wants to win his home grand prix as he sits sixth on the grid failing to convert his FP3 position when it really counts. Charles Leclerc out qualifying his teammate for the sixth time in a row. A huge upgrade for RB didn’t have the impacted they wanted as both drivers failed to make it out of Q1, unlike Mercedes who have received significant improvement in recent weekends, locking out the 2nd row ahead of the Ferraris. Lewis Hamilton “ "I'm really happy. It's been quite a difficult year but everyone back at the factory has worked so hard, finally we are starting to see those steps moving closer to those guys ahead. Slowly, the car is crafting into a racing machine that we can use to fight the cars ahead." With the potential of Ferrari, Redbull, Mercedes on pole position team strategies are vital and could be the making and breaking of these drivers.
An array of tyres seen as the drivers began FP3 with Magnussen, Alonso and Stroll hitting the track in hards, both Redbulls and Tsunoda in mediums and Mercedes and Ferraris testing their softs with the track measuring around 43 degrees Celsius compared to 48 during FP1, but today’s wind has made all the difference in the board order. George Russell topping the board in the first half of the session but as the teams enter the final half an hour of free practice fresh sets and qualifying simulation comes into play. Home hero Carlos Sainz managed to reach the top spot during the final free practice after going third in FP1 and second in FP2. Leclerc who is now running the same spec as Carlos and managed to go faster than max Verstappen to go up into third missing out on taking besting his teammate by 0.037, one of many caught out by the wind that Hamilton and Verstappen have also felt. QUALIFYING
As qualifying picks up pace the time board start seeing 1.11s. Q2 ended as both the Aston Martins and Saubers Saturdays early, with Nico Hulkenberg to complete the bottom of bottom five. With just two minutes remaining, Lewis Hamilton was battling to escape the bottom five, managing to place his Mercedes in second position to save himself an early exit. Meanwhile, both Alpine drivers successfully secured their places. It was Fernando Alonso's 21st home Grand Prix, and while his performance was disappointing for the Spanish fans, there was still hope as Carlos Sainz advanced to Q3, positioning himself fifth and splitting the McLarens. Mercedes continued to show strong form, holding the second and third spots, but it was Max Verstappen who set the fastest lap, outperforming his teammate Sergio Perez, who only managed to secure eighth place.
Teamwork among the Redbull garages had early pay off as Checo gives Max a slip stream to provisional pole but a purple middle sector from Norris, thanks to a small tow from Ocon, pushed him in to second. Piastri’s chances of improving dissolved as he ran wide into the gravel leaving him, without a lap recorded, in 10th. Ahead of Ocon, but with Perez in 8th with a three place grid penalty yet to be added he will move down into 11th pushing the Mclaren and Alpine into 8th and 9th and Alonso into the top 10 for his 21st home grand prix. Bronwen Jones Writer @ F1 Journal 
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