Taking pole once again is a resurgent Oscar Piastri, who backed up his Friday sprint qualifying pole with another stellar lap yesterday, putting him in a strong position for the race on a track where overtaking is notoriously difficult.

Starting alongside him is the championship leader, who squandered a chance at pole with an error on his final flying lap, while Max Verstappen will start third, ready to apply pressure on both McLarens. The top five is completed by the two Mercedes, with George Russell ahead of Kimi Antonelli.

Once again, it’s a disaster for Ferrari: Charles Leclerc will start only tenth after spinning in Q3, while Lewis Hamilton was eliminated in Q1, lining up seventeenth.

Isack Hadjar and Carlos Sainz will start sixth and seventh, with Fernando Alonso and an impressive Pierre Gasly lining up in eighth and ninth, respectively.

This weekend’s race is set to be unusual, thanks to the reintroduction of the mandatory two-stop rule for safety.

With drivers restricted to no more than 25 laps per tyre set, teams will have to plan their stints carefully, rather than running freely over the full race distance.

As a result, strategies are expected to converge more than usual, although teams still retain the choice of which tyres to use across the three scheduled stints. Here’s an overview of the strategies likely to come into play today.