Meanwhile, Yuki Tsunoda was outqualified by Verstappen for the 12th time in as many qualifying sessions since he joined Red Bull, failing to reach Q3/SQ3 for the seventh time in a row; his deficit on the Dutchman was six tenths, and he ended up 12th. It is worth noting that he was not given the upgrades that Verstappen is running this weekend.

With a move to Mercedes now seemingly on the back burner, Verstappen spoke about when he plans to retire. The Dutchman admitted last year to SPORTbible that he had achieved everything he wanted to in F1 and stated his intentions to try other forms of racing.