Lewis Hamilton beats Vettel to pole, the German is under investigation
Lewis Hamilton outpaced his fierce rival by less than a tenth of second. Both men were involved in controversial incidents during qualifying. Marcus Ericsson and Sauber were best of the rest.
Before qualifying, it was confirmed that Esteban Ocon (unscheduled gearbox change) and Daniel Ricciardo (new turbocharger) would be hit with 5-place grid penalties for the race.
Q1
Valtteri Bottas fired in the opening time of qualifying on a 1:08.863. Hamilton and Raikkonen took turns at the top before Max Verstappen then put in a 1:08.205 to go P1 and remained on top at the end of Q1. Raikkonen, Vettel, Hamilton, Magnussen, Bottas, Ricciardo, Leclerc, Grosjean and Ericsson completed the top ten. There was only 0.549 between them.
Perez, Hartley, Vandoorne, Sirtokin and Stroll were in the bottom five after the first fliers. Perez and Sirotkin improved on the second attempts to climb out of the drop zone. It left the Toro Rossos, McLarens and Stroll in trouble ahead of the final attempts.
An excellent late lap from Pierre Gasly saw him move up to P12 and make Q2. Carlos Sainz got bumped down and missed out on making it by 0.005s. Hartley, Alonso, Stroll and Vandoorne were the other casualties of Q1.
A mere 0.063s separated Perez in P13 to Hartley in P17.
Q2
Charles Leclerc logged the first time of the middle segment of qualifying with a 1:08.736. Valtteri Bottas soon demolished that by over a second to be fastest in Q2. However, the Ferraris picked the soft tyres and it paid off as Vettel and Raikkonen slotted into P2 and P5.
Hamilton, Verstappen, Ricciardo, Grosjean, Leclerc, Ericsson and Gasly were the other drivers who made it through. The young driver from Monaco put in a superb late lap in tricky conditions to go from P11 to P8.
Magnussen, Perez, Ocon, Hulkenberg and Sirotkin got knocked out in Q2.
The session involved a near miss as Sirotkin almost smashed into Hamilton who was in the middle of the circuit and made a dangerous late move on the run towards turn 13 (Juncao).
Sebastian Vettel has been referred to the stewards for destroying the scales on the weighbridge after refusing to turn his engine off while getting weighed in the early stages of Q2.
Q3
Again, Leclerc posted the first time of the session on a 1:08.492.
Lewis Hamilton stormed to the top soon after with a 1:07.301. The Brit, Vettel, Bottas and Raikkonen were all covered by 0.155s following the first fliers.
Verstappen, Ricciardo, Ericsson, Leclerc, Grosjean and Gasly filled positions 5-10 ahead of the final attempts of Q3.
Hamilton shaved 0.020s off his previous time on his second run to confirm his pole position. Ericsson was the only other driver who improved but he stayed in P7.
