But Leclerc pulled out a fine lap at the end to take pole by 0.286 seconds. The Spaniard’s first flying lap did not register because the red flag was thrown for Alonso’s crash just as Sainz approached the line. But possibly the biggest loser was Alonso, who was 0.2secs up on Leclerc’s first lap time after two sectors of his flying lap before his incident. Verstappen said: “I didn’t feel good in the car the whole weekend so far. Hamilton was 0.957secs off Leclerc’s pole position time and 0.108 ahead of Russell, who has been close to him all weekend.

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