Q2 – Red Bull faces a double elimination and two more red flags

The rain appeared to have eased at the start of the second qualifying session as Piastri had put on the intermediate tires for his opening run while the rest of the field was still using the rain tires. All eyes were on the Australian's potential – and he achieved third fastest place with a time of 1:28.925 minutes.

Several other drivers then began boxing for Inters, while Piastri continued to go even faster, being 0.6 seconds quicker than Verstappen at the front. However, grip appeared to be difficult as Russell spun – and soon after, Sainz went off the track in Turn 2, triggering the yellow flags, which then became the second red flag of the session.

“I crashed, sorry guys,” Sainz commented over the radio after losing the back of his Ferrari. With five minutes to go, as Q2 came to a standstill, Norris, Gasly, Albon, Tsunoda and Ocon were the drivers at risk. Would Norris have to repeat his last-minute fight to get into Q1?

The Brit seemed keen to avoid this as he had positioned himself at the front of the pitlane queue before the session began. When it started again, Norris was in third place – but others also improved, including Alonso, who was fastest.

Leclerc got out of the danger zone while Norris was quickest at 1m24.844s, but disaster struck for Red Bull when a crash by Stroll triggered another red flag – meaning there was no time for the world champion to recover to improve.

Verstappen's twelfth place becomes 17th on the grid, with the Dutchman falling five places on the grid due to an engine change. The other drivers eliminated in Q2 were Bottas in P11, Perez in P13, Sainz in P14 and Gasly in P15.

Eliminated: Bottas, Verstappen, Perez, Sainz, Gasly