Piastri’s pole came despite a major oversteer moment on the entry to Turn Four, which he estimated had cost him about 0.2secs and he described as “pretty scary – turning left in a right-hand corner is never good, especially when you’re doing however many hundreds of kilometres an hour you’re doing there”.
Underlying Verstappen’s troubles, the Dutchman was beaten by his team-mate Yuki Tsunoda in qualifying for the first time this season, the Japanese faster by 0.009secs.
It may transpire that Verstappen’s car was handicapped when he set his fastest time.
He ran off track at the exit of Turn Four on his first attempt, bouncing across the gravel trap violently, the sort of incident in which an F1 car’s floor can incur damage, although he did not mention it in his interview.
He was also complaining, with added swear words, through the session over the radio about the car bouncing.
Verstappen said: “Not good. From the first lap just really bad bouncing and very aggressive understeer that would switch into oversteer in high speed. Just not what you want. We tried to change a few things on the wheel but it never really worked.
“With this balance, in the sprint it will not be a lot of fun. It will be more about trying to survive and then make some changes going into qualifying.”
Although overshadowed by the title fight, arguably the star of sprint qualifying was Fernando Alonso, who put the Aston Martin fourth on the grid – an outstanding performance for a team that lies eighth in the constructors’ championship.
“One of the best results of the year,” he said. “Tough circuit, high-speed sections and the car seemed in the window already in P1 Q3. A bit of stress in Q2 because of traffic but we made it into Q3 and then we put a lap together.
“Twenty-four years’ experience, 44 years old, it has some disadvantages. I get a bit more tired with the jet lag, but I know the tracks, the tyres, and know how to extract everything on Fridays and then on Saturdays it’s true we open parc ferme and make some small changes to the cars and everyone seems to get on top of the circuit.
Behind him, Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli was seventh, with the Williams of Carlos Sainz and Alex Albon sandwiching Leclerc.
Hamilton said almost nothing in his sole media interview after the session.
Asked how tricky the car was, he said: “Same as always.”
