The McLarens of Norris and Piastri led the session with a time of 1m31.107s, separated by just two tenths of a second as the final minutes of the run began.
The Woking-based team took things calmly, while Hamilton’s Ferrari and Verstappen slotted into second and third, splitting the McLaren pair.
Doohan placed his Alpine in fifth, while Gasly finished eighth in the second French car. Between them were Antonelli and Leclerc.
Albon, Lawson, Bortoleto, Stroll, and Bearman were the first drivers eliminated, taking positions 16 through 20.
McLaren remained dominant in Q2, with Piastri topping the timesheets followed closely by Norris. A surprising lap from Gasly placed his Alpine in third ahead of Russell and Antonelli.
The session was interrupted by a red flag caused by Ocon’s heavy crash in his Haas in the first sector, which brought track activity to a halt for several minutes.
In the initial run of the final shootout, Piastri went fastest with a 1m30.233s, beating Russell by 0.131s and Norris by 0.163s. The Ferraris of Leclerc and Hamilton completed the top five, though over a second off the pace, as both were running on used tyres.
Russell had managed to split the McLarens thanks to using fresh tyres for his first attempt.
Tsunoda was seventh, while Verstappen struggled with brake issues and was only tenth, 1.8 seconds off Piastri’s benchmark.
Later in the session, the Mercedes drivers went 1-2 with Russell leading thanks to a 1m30.009s lap, though Leclerc quickly jumped to second, splitting the Silver Arrows.
However, Piastri delivered a superb lap at the end — a 1m29.841s — to snatch pole position ahead of Russell, leaving Leclerc and Antonelli on the second row.
At the end of qualifying, both George Russell and Andrea Kimi Antonelli were handed one-place grid penalties for a pit lane infringement during the red flag period, promoting Charles Leclerc to second and Pierre Gasly to fourth.
Norris didn’t improve his lap and finished sixth, just ahead of Gasly and narrowly in front of Verstappen, who will start seventh.
Sainz, Hamilton, and Tsunoda rounded out the top ten.
Positions
- Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:29.841
- Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:30.175
- George Russell Mercedes 1:30.009
- Pierre Gasly Alpine 1:30.216
- Andrea Kimi Antonelli Mercedes 1:30.213
- Lando Norris McLaren 1:30.267
- Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:30.423
- Carlos Sainz Williams 1:30.680
- Lewis Hamilton Ferrari 1:30.772
- Yuki Tsunoda Red Bull 1:31.303
