As there was a 60 % chance of rain during the qualifying, everyone headed out on the red-walled super-softs right away. Red Bull's Verstappen topped the time sheets after the first runs, with Kimi second and Hamilton third. Once again Sauber showed amazing pace, Leclerc being faster than Mercedes' Bottas after the first attempts. The red-suited drivers were extremely evenly matched, as Kimi and Sebastian set identical lap times on their second runs. The much-expected rain arrived at Turn 12, when there were about eight minutes left in the clock. The rain intensified a little towards the end of the segment, but the track still remained dry enough for the slicks. The battle in the midfield was extremely tight, and the margins were tiny. Renault's Sainz, who was the first driver to miss out on Q2, was tenuous five thousandths of a second off Force India's Ocon, who was the last driver to get through to the second session. Toro Rosso's Hartley, Williams' Stroll and the McLaren duo of Alonso and Vandoorne were also out of Q2.
Again, everyone rushed out straight away, as the second session was kicked off. It was vital to get a banker lap in, in case the rain would worsen the track conditions. Mercedes sent their drivers out on the softest rubber, as did Ferrari. However, Ferrari opted to call their drivers in after an installation lap. Both red-suited drivers switched to the yellow-marked middle compound, which was a risky but courageous call from the Red Team. Bottas went fastest, but Sebastian on the harder rubber was only five hundredths of a second off the Finn. Hamilton was third, Verstappen fourth and Kimi fifth. As soon as the other two top teams saw, how competitive the Ferraris were on the softs, they, too sent their drivers out on the soft compound. However, with seven minutes left in the clock, there began heavy rain at Turns 13 and 14. Neither the Red Bull drivers nor the Mercedes duo were able to improve their lap times in the changing conditions. There was a scary-looking incident, which involved Hamilton and Williams' Sirotkin. Hamilton was on a cool-down lap, and Sirotkin was coming from behind. The Russian had to make a sharp evading move, not to hit the Briton. However, Hamilton didn't get a penalty for impeding Sirotkin, as the Russian, too had been on a cool-down lap, in spite of the pace difference. The track conditions turned more challenging at the end of the second session. There was only one driver, who was able to improve his lap time in the end. And that was Sauber's Leclerc! The team already asked the Monegasque to drive into the pits, but he insisted, that he wanted to give it a one more try. And he jumped 8th after a magnificent lap! Also teammate Ericsson managed to make it through to the last segment. Eliminated from Q3 were Haas' Magnussen, the Force India duo of Perez and Ocon and Williams' Sirotkin.
There was no more rain, as the last 12-minute session got underway. When it came down to the decisive laps, Hamilton nailed it once again. The Briton took provisional pole by 0.073s to Sebastian. Bottas in third was 0.14s down on his teammate and Kimi in fourth was 0.155s off the five-time world champion. In dry conditions the Red Bulls proved unable to take the battle to Mercedes and Ferrari. The second runs saw no change in terms of the top five. Hamilton was the only driver, who managed to improve his lap time, but only by two hundredths of a second. This meant the 10th pole position of the season for the superior Briton. Sebastian got quite close, being only 0.093s off the Mercedes ace. The Finns locked down the second row, with Bottas having the upper hand on his fellow countryman. The third row belonged to the Red Bull drivers, with Verstappen 5th and Ricciardo 6th. Sauber made a stunning job by locking down the fourth row (Ericsson 7th and Leclerc 8th). Haas' Grosjean and Toro Rosso's Gasly rounded out the top ten.
For a while there were rumors after qualifying, that Sebastian could get penalized for a weighbridge infringement, which had taken place in Q2. On his way to get the softs on, Sebastian was called for a weigh-in. Sebastian was very annoyed about that, as he was in a hurry to get the lap done on the softs. Sebastian waved his hands irritably and told the officials to hurry up. According to the regulations the car must be pushed off from the weighbridge by the officials, but Sebastian decided to drive off himself. This caused major damage to the weighbridge. At first I was sure, that Sebastian was going to get a penalty for his actions. With an infringement like this, the driver could be excluded from the qualifying results. However, Sebastian only got a reprimand and a 25 000 -dollar fine. The key things to avoid the penalty were the facts, that he did turn his engine off on the weighbridge and that the officials managed to weigh the car successfully. But still I wonder, what has got to Sebastian this season. He doesn't seem to be himself... Any of the drivers could get the call for the weigh-in, so why lose nerves like this?
Ferrari seemed to suffer from blistering on the long runs on Friday, so today's race will certainly be interesting. Mercedes will have the advantage at the start, as they start to the race on the softer compound. But will Ferrari be able to make their strategy work better on the race distance? Everything changes, if it rains... Looking forward to an action-packed race! Forza Ferrari! Go Kimi! Go Sebastian!
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