Exciting starting grid. Ferrari on pole with Leclerc but likely to be slower on race pace than some of the cars behind. Perez joining him on the front row, McLaren likely the fastest car, might be close with Red Bull though, different setup philosophies as well, and also “only” P4 and P5 on the grid so at least with some amount of work to do. Hamilton in P3, Russell behind the McLarens, behind that cars mixed up all over the place with a hungry Verstappen from P11 who looked mighty in qualifying yesterday. Will be interesting to see whether their setup choice of higher downforce was correct and he’ll get some good overtakes in, or if he’ll be stuck in a DRS train. The undercut is very powerful here as well (naturally with a 7km circuit).

I think on paper McLaren should 1-2 this, but they probably should’ve 1-2ed the last few races judging by their car performance and only managed it once. Verstappen should be somewhere among the Ferraris and Mercedes. But it’s everything to play for.