The McLaren drivers said they had expected Verstappen to be in the mix.

“He’s been quick all weekend,” Norris said. “It’s never a surprise with Max. It was quite a session from me, up and down, and too many mistakes, but I managed to pull it out in the end so I’m happy with P2.

“I feel like I didn’t do the best of jobs but to end up P2 I’m still happy with.

“The race is normally our strength but to get past Max won’t be easy. And the Ferraris will want to get through as quickly as possible.”

Piastri was 0.113secs behind his team-mate after appearing to be a little off Norris’ pace all weekend.

“Turn one was a little bit average, but the rest of the lap all felt pretty tidy,” the Australian said.

“I felt like I executed a pretty good session but it’s been incredibly tight this weekend. Max and Red Bull looked quick. A lot of teams looked quick, it has not been quite as comfortable for us.”

Leclerc was second fastest behind Verstappen after the first runs in the final session with Hamilton fourth, but neither Ferrari driver could improve their time on their final laps.

Russell had set the fastest time of all in the first part of qualifying using the medium tyre.

And when he left the pits for his final run in the final session, he questioned the team’s choice of soft tyres, saying: “I thought I said I wanted the mediums.”

The Briton ended up 0.365 off pole and just 0.043secs ahead of Antonelli, who recovered well from spinning off into the gravel early in second practice and missing most of the session.

Eighth and ninth were outstanding performances from Bortoleto and Alonso.

Bortoleto beat Sauber team-mate Nico Hulkenberg by four places and Alonso out-performed expectations at Aston Martin by some margin.

The team were expecting a difficult weekend after they lined up on the back of the grid at the Belgian Grand Prix, another high-speed track, because they have a car with too much drag.

But somehow Alonso got it into the top 10.