You have to give it to the team - nothing, even this, seems to dampen their spirits!
Verstappen, Norris and Leclerc made up the top three, with a surprise P4 appearance for Alpha Tauri stand-in Liam Lawson - super stuff from the young Australian.
Bottas, Stroll, Hulkenberg, Zhou and Sargeant were knocked out in Q1.
Q2 saw Leclerc just about outpace Verstappen for fastest lap, followed by Pérez in third. Alonso, this weekend’s samurai, set a lap good enough for P8, slotting in behind the impressively quick home hero Yuki Tsunoda, before being pushed down to 10th by both Mercedes cars. Both Haas and Williams had one remaining driver each for this session, with both eventually not making the cut. It was disappointment also for Alpine - their French lineup wasn’t able to maintain top 10 positions and was subsequently eliminated from Q2.
Lawson, Gasly, Albon, Ocon and Magnussen were out in Q2.
Q3 began with Verstappen setting a 1:29.012, leaving 8 minutes for the other nine drivers to attempt to get near it. Teammate Pérez’s best effort initially fell 1.3 seconds short. Piastri and Norris shuffled up to second and third respectively as Checo split the two Ferraris in fourth and fifth on his final lap. Alonso remained in P10, out-qualified by two tenths by Tsunoda - if that were to happen at any GP, it’d have to be this one!