The driver who was winning the championship didn’t seem like he could be beaten in the race. He was really fast, and nobody could beat the time he set at the start of the race. This made it exciting to see who would start next to him on the front row.
At first, Fernando Alonso had the second-best time, but then other drivers started to do better. Carlos Sainz, who crashed in an earlier round, got a good time, and then his teammate Charles Leclerc did even better. Then Oscar Piastri got ahead, followed by Lando Norris. But eventually, Sergio Perez from Red Bull got the second-best time, pushing Alonso back to the second row next to Norris.
Behind them, Piastri and Leclerc start on the third row, and Sainz and George Russell start on the fourth row. Nico Hulkenberg did well to make it into the final round of qualifying and starts ninth, with Valtteri Bottas in tenth.
There was a bit of drama in the middle of the race when Sainz spun out and hit the wall, causing a red flag. It seemed like he might not be able to continue, but he managed to get back to the pits and even made it to the final round of qualifying.
Some big names got knocked out early. Lewis Hamilton, who’s won the championship many times, didn’t make it past the first round of qualifying. He had some trouble on the track and ended up near the bottom. Yuki Tsunoda also had some problems with his car but couldn’t make it out of the first round either. And Logan Sargeant spun out and will start at the back of the grid on Sunday.
