Quote Originally Posted by truefan72 View Post
It was scintillating. In fact i was very pleased with the entire grid.
Russel P12
Ocon p5
Sainz P3
Norris p6 (but really p3!)
Gasly p8
It was a wonderful qualifying session. and exciting too.

On to the race
Nope, Norris qualified P6 and will start P9.

I think people have been too excited about some drivers' performances this quali, such as Hamilton, Sainz and Ocon. Yes, it's obviously true that Hamilton pulled a very good lap, but I don't think the large difference to second place is because the lap is "stuff of the greats", but rather, because Verstappen and Bottas dropped the ball. Bottas in particular qualifying behind a McLaren is embarrassing, although I don't know if he was hindered by yellow flags.

On top of that, it's very noteworthy that P5 (Ocon) to P9 (Ricciardo) were separated by less than three tenths of a second. Sainz was the only midfield driver to get ahead of the rest of the group and it was "only" by .25 seconds, which is significant, but not massive on a wet track.