The incident also caused Felipe Massa to obtain a puncture, while also forcing Alonso off the track, leading them to eventually finish the race outside of the points. Then an incident with Bottas, Räikkönen and Verstappen meant that both Räikkönen and Verstappen retired with suspension damage and Bottas was left slightly handicapped. Vettel had a better start than Hamilton and led into the first corner. The top ten was filled out by Sergio Pérez, Felipe Massa and Esteban Ocon. Fernando Alonso delivered a shocking result to get his underpowered McLaren into Q3 and then qualifying as the best of the rest behind Mercedes, Ferrari and Red Bull. Valtteri Bottas and Kimi Räikkönen filled up the second row followed by the Red Bulls of Max Verstappen and Daniel Ricciardo. Vettel was initially ordered to stop the car on track for an engine problem in Q1 but he questioned the decision and the problem was resolved and allowed him to continue. Lewis Hamilton claimed pole position from Sebastian Vettel by 0.051 seconds.

The Red Bull pair of Verstappen and Ricciardo were again fifth and sixth. Bottas was fourth after his engine suffered a water leak and he was only able to run towards the end of the session, once Mercedes had changed the engine. The third practice session, on Saturday morning, finished with Räikkönen quickest, Vettel second, and Hamilton third. Alonso was able to take part in the second session, but had to wait until almost half an hour into it while his team was completing an engine change.

McLaren Honda's run of poor reliability continued, with home favourite Fernando Alonso sitting out most of the first session after his car suffered a major engine failure during his first lap. Next came the Red Bulls, with Max Verstappen fifth in both sessions and Daniel Ricciardo sixth.

2.3 Championship standings after the raceīoth of Friday's practice sessions finished with an identical top six on the timesheet, with Lewis Hamilton heading the list, his Mercedes teammate Valtteri Bottas second and the Ferraris of Kimi Räikkönen and Sebastian Vettel third and fourth respectively.

F1 2017 tires