Another surprise was Nico Hulkenberg, sixth place with Haas, who managed to place both cars in the top 10. The North American team was one of those that brought the most new parts to this GP, and they have always improved with the updates they use.
SQ1: Piastri falls right at the beginning of the classification
Very different times between teammates at the start of the sprint classification made clear the difficulty of the first day of a sprint weekend: not only do the drivers only have one free practice session, but the vast majority of them go to the track with the medium tire for the first time in the classification.
This is because the regulations oblige everyone to do the first two parts of defining the grid for the sprint, and this is an important compound for both races, so it is worth taking the risk of not using the medium tire first.
Add this to a track with undulations, wind and different layers of asphalt on a track that had been repaved little by little over the years, and it was difficult for some drivers to stay on the track. Worse for Oscar Piastri, who didn’t do well on the first attempt, left the track on the second and had his lap deleted.
He was one of the drivers eliminated straight away, along with Esteban Ocon, Alex Albon and the Sauber duo. Albon even spun in the final moments of SQ1 and was overtaken by teammate Franco Colapinto on a track the Argentine had never raced on.
