The track conditions on Sunday morning were a little different from the day before. After the first race, it rained. So, in the early hours of the day, the thermometer read just 16°C. The practice session was cautious, but the grip was relatively good. The two DS E-TENSE FE23s remained on the sidelines during the first half of the session, but raised their game as the session drew to a close.
A yellow flag at Turn 11, indicating an abnormally slippery surface, prompted the whole grid to adopt a wiser approach. At 9.40am local time, the first group took to the track for qualifying. Vergne took part, and this time the two-time champion found a clear lap. He qualified for the quarter-finals by setting the second fastest time in his group, just 12 thousandths off Robin Frijns' Envision. Later, Stoffel Vandoorne showed how well his DS E-TENSE FE23 was performing by finishing fifth in his group, just a tenth of a second behind Pascal Wehrlein's Porsche.
