The 30-year-old said: “It was amazing. Thank you to everyone. It was an incredible qualifying. From the first lap in Q1, I felt very good in the car, trying to chip away a bit every single session.
“It felt like a very good lap. It has been nine years trying to chase a pole position and to take my first win here and then my first pole here is amazing.”
Russell, who had been a strong favourite for pole in the light of Antonelli’s penalty, said: “Firstly, massive congrats to Pierre because that’s an incredible performance.
“We were finishing a game of chess 15 minutes before qualifying and he beat me there and I thought, ‘well, I will beat him in qualifying.’ But here we are. I am disappointed not to be on pole but Pierre was very fast from Q1.”
Having already blocked Lawson, Piastri then inadvertently compromised Norris’ final run. He was leading the pack around, with Norris behind him, and locked up into the first chicane, going straight on into the run-off area and hampering his team-mate.
Now without a slipstream, Norris was 0.4secs down at the first sector and bled time through the lap. “Without a slipstream, with our straight-line deficiency, it’s hard to put something good together,” said the Briton.
Ferrari had looked set to be in the mix at the front before qualifying with their new engine that was believed to be worth about 0.1secs per lap.
But the session did not go their way.
Hamilton made it through into the final session by only 0.001secs as Audi’s Gabriel Bortoleto just failed to displace him, and let out an expletive over the radio when he saw the narrow escape.
And the red cars were just not fast enough in the final session. Leclerc was fourth on both his runs, while Hamilton, ninth on his first run, improved on his second but ended up 0.007secs behind his team-mate.
