Oscar Piastri secured his second career pole position, but there was late drama with Williams demanding answers as to why it took the FIA 45 minutes to delete Nico Hulkenberg’s lap, denying Alex Albon the chance to compete in Q2, and Mercedes feeling harsh that both their drivers were hit with a one-place grid penalty for a breach of regulations regarding the red flag restart.
During Q1 and Q2, it seemed an all-too-familiar story as McLaren seemed in control and on course to lock out the front row before Q3 turned it all upside down. Oscar Piastri secured pole with a 1m 29.841s in his final run that was enough to hold off the threat from George Russell, who finished a tenth off in P2. This was then changed to P3 after Mercedes were hit with a one-place grid penalty for both of them after they were found guilty of entering the fast lane of the pits before a restart time was confirmed.
Charles Leclerc made the most of the SF-25 updates by securing P3, which means that with that George Russell penalty, he will now line up for the Grand Prix on the front row. Kimi Antonelli rounded a strong showing for Mercedes in P4, which will now be P5. The surprise of the session was Pierre Gasly, who will now start in P4 after qualifying a superb P5, giving Alpine Executive Flavio Briatore something to smile about on his birthday.
Lando Norris will start in P6, which is a huge disappointment for the Championship leader, who goes into this weekend with a slender one-point lead over 4-time and defending World Champion Max Verstappen, who will be lining up in P7 after a disappointing weekend for Red Bull, who have seemed off the pace after their win in Japan.
P8 went to Carlos Sainz in his strongest showing since his switch from Ferrari, with Lewis Hamilton ninth in the sister Ferrari after one of his laps was deleted over track limits, and Yuki Tsunoda completing the top 10 after putting his Red Bull in Q3.
Jack Doohan had a stellar start to Qualifying, securing a fifth-place finish in Q1. However, he narrowly missed out on a double Q3 appearance for Alpine, finishing 11th behind Racing Bulls rookie Isack Hadjar and the Aston Martin of Fernando Alonso.
Esteban Ocon led the Haas charge after advancing to Q2. Unfortunately, he crashed heavily exiting the second corner, triggering the red flags. This incident left him in 14th position on the grid for Sunday’s race.
After a promising start to 2025, Alex Albon faced his first major setback with a Q1 exit. Unable to match the pace of his new teammate, Carlos Sainz, Albon couldn’t secure a spot in the race. However, Nico Hulkenberg’s deleted lap time resulted in Albon’s promotion to 15th place. In contrast, Sauber’s Kick Sauber racer, Nico Hulkenberg, finished 16th.
Liam Lawson, another driver who experienced disappointment, finished in 17th place. He reportedly encountered an apparent issue with the Drag Reduction System in his Racing Bulls car. Sauber’s young driver, Gabriel Bortoleto, and Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll followed Lawson in 18th and 19th place, respectively.
Haas racer Ollie Bearman, who achieved his first Q3 appearance at the Japanese Grand Prix last weekend, had a disappointing session as he ended up in 20th place and last on the Qualifying timing screen due to a compromised final Q1 lap.
Following the criticism of the FIA, the sports governing body has issued a statement regarding track limits, which stated that…
“There are a number of track limit hot spots which are monitored continuously live. Track limit hot spots are given precedence. Based on previous sessions, Turn 11 was not deemed to be an area of focus for track limits. In hindsight, it should have been higher on our priority list as a corner.
“Checks in areas of the circuit such as Turn 11 take a bit longer than those of a high priority.
“Unfortunately, in this case due to the timing of the check it was not possible to act before the start of Q2. As soon as we became aware of the incident, we acted on it.
“We are building towards increased resources and improved systems and processes. On this occasion, we got it wrong.”
Williams boss James Vowles said the call by the FIA cost his team the opportunity to have both cars in the Top Ten saying.
“First of all it’s frustrating, because Q1 is ever-so tight now, you can see cars do three runs, the cars that are slightly better do two — that’s where we were. We didn’t get the best lap with Alex, but it was a top ten car today,” Vowles told Sirius XM after qualifying.
“Some of the laps, you can see from the FIA, they were very quick to respond on — Verstappen, Tsunoda — and typically their timeline should be seconds after it happens. Good question on why this one wasn’t because the impact is: brilliant, he’s moved behind us, but that’s of no bearing to the fact that we’re probably six to eight places out of position, and that hasn’t been corrected, and it won’t be corrected either for tomorrow.”