Qualifying off the front row for the first time since last October’s Qatar GP, Leclerc chose to pit instead of completing his final lap after running slightly wide under braking at Turn Three.
He admitted the SF-24 had been difficult to drive, with a “very aggressive” front-wing change for his final Q3 attempt ultimately not helping matters either.
That description of the car from his team-mate made Sainz’s sure-footed performance on his return all the more impressive.
“I’m not in my most comfortable state when I’m driving out there but I can get it done,” said the Spaniard, who was replaced by Ferrari reserve driver Oliver Bearman at the last round in Jeddah.
“A lot of discomfort and weird feelings, but no pain, and that allowed me to push flat out.”
After a difficult Friday, Mercedes had appeared to show promise with what appeared to be a step forward in the earlier final practice session but qualifying again exposed the W15’s weaknesses.
On the cusp in 10th after his final lap of the second stage, Hamilton was knocked out by a last-gasp improvement from Lance Stroll with team-mate George Russell only just making it through himself.
Russell went on to qualify seventh, eight tenths of a second off the pace. Mercedes’ drivers had been second and third on the grid behind Verstappen here last year.
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Yuki Tsunoda impressed again over a single lap to take RB into the top 10, the Japanese driver outqualifying both Aston Martin cars in eighth place.
On what will be an all-green row five, Stroll outqualified Fernando Alonso for the first time this year. Stroll’s sole run in Q3 provided the team’s quickest lap after Alonso damaged the floor of his AMR24 in a high-speed trek across the grass on his first attempt, which compromised performance on his second.
But while there was a second successive Q3 appearance for Tsunoda, RB team-mate Daniel Ricciardo’s disappointing start to the season suffered a fresh setback on home soil as he qualified only 18th after a lap-time deletion for running off track at the end of Q1. The lap had originally placed him on the right side of the cut line in 12th.
