Great qualifying by Norris. 3rd.

Max managed to keep his amazing pole time. Hamilton ended up just less than 0.4 behind.

He has achieved what he couldn't at Saudi. Securing pole to be in front of Hamilton.

But he will be starting on softs, vs Hamilton on mediums.

Max will have a great start with the softer compound and also from P1 on the clean side. 

Wild card here would be because of the different tires, he and Hamilton will be on different pit stop windows, Which also means Hamilton doesn't need to pass Max on track. Their position swaps could be during pit stops. 

It's suppose to be a 2 stop race, so Max could be doing soft-medium-medium. I believe he doesn't have another set of softs, at least not new ones. Likely he won't do a soft-hard, the hard may not last that long. His soft also won't last long at the beginning the race, heavy fuel load and soft compound don't play too well. But he will still have the pace early. 

Hamilton on the other hand is a bit more flexible, his starting tires will last a bit longer, he might do one stop with medium-hard. Or he could do medium-hard-soft for his last stint to go even faster. 

We should have a great race tomorrow.

 

 


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