70 seconds. That’s all it took Lando. No one has gone round the track in 70 seconds before. Charles’ lap was great too but Lando was on a mission today. He had everyone on the edge of their seats and delivered an awesome performance. Piastri got P3 but it looked like he fell short and it was not his best lap. RBR struggled with the softs and failed to leave a mark, with Yuki not even making Q3.

Mercedes drivers struggled with their cars and barring something crazy happening, they are going to be pointless this weekend. Russell lost power in the tunnel and had to be pushed to the pit lane and Kimi pushed a bit too much and crashed in the Nouvelle chicane.

Hadjar continues to impress and will start P5 tomorrow followed by Alonso in P6. Williams Will be disappointed; they could have done better but car didn’t look like it was in the optimum window during their runs.

Hamilton is going to suffer due to a miscommunication from Ferrari, with a 3-Place penalty he will start behind Alonso. Ferrari should really do something about these goof ups soon. These points they keep dropping may end up proving crucial when the season nears its end.

What to expect from the race?

Honestly it can go either way, either it will be a crazy race with many teams running different strategies or it would be the usual parade. I’m leaning towards the latter. The compulsory two stop doesn’t seem enough to stir things up but I’ll be glad to be proven wrong.

Expect the backmarkers to gamble and go for an undercut, with a short first stint on the softs hoping to get benefited with an early SC or VSC. Which is possible looking at the Pile ups we got in F2 and Porsche Cup.