Verstappen had looked the man to beat going into the final part of qualifying after he set a stunning lap in the second knock-out session. He was 0.5secs clear of the Mercedes on his first run and did not bother going out for a second, and even so the Mercedes drivers could only get to within 0.2secs of him. But things turned around in the final part of the session and Hamilton pulled it out of the bag. “I made some changes, I had a bit of anxiety about the changes we were going make. Who would have thought when I made the move at the end of 2012 that we would get to 100? Verstappen said: “Both laps were pretty decent, the second run was a little worse for whatever reason but second for us here on this track is very good today.

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