Max Verstappen went fastest in qualifying and claimed Pole Position for Sunday’s Formula 1 Qatar Grand Prix. George Russell will start alongside him, and Lando Norris completes the top three.
Q1
Mercedes’s George Russell went fastest in Q1 closely followed by both Ferraris, led by Charles Leclerc. The British driver had a much better performance than teammate Lewis Hamilton, who was only seventh – though this was just the first of three qualifying runs, so not definitive.
A similar gap was experienced by the McLaren duo of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri, who placed the 4th and 9th fastest laps respectively – all with the soft compound tires.
Max Verstappen was fifth and teammate Sergio Perez was eight, an improvement for the Mexican who had a really poor Sprint Qualifying on Friday. His performance has certainly not been up to par this season.
Fernando Alonso was sixth, while teammate Lance Stroll 13th. Surprisingly, the Sauber cars of Valtteri Bottas and Guanyu Zhou sandwiched the Canadian, moving into Q2. A performance to be celebrated by the last team in the standings.
Yuki Tsunoda barely made it in P15, and his rookie teammate Liam Lawson was eliminated in P17.
Williams is also having a hard time around Qatar, with both cars out in Q1 – Alexander Albon 16th and Argentine rookie Franco Colapinto in 19th. Nico Hulkenberg was ahead of him in 18th.
Esteban Ocon completed the grid in the last spot – a nightmare of a qualifying for the Alpine driver whose teammate was well into Q2.
Q2
Things at the top were always evolving and this time around Verstappen got the fastest lap, a 1:20.687s followed by Norris (+0.296s) and Leclerc (+0.313s), all in the softs.
The Mercedes duo was now together, with Russell and Hamilton in P4 and P5 respectively. Piastr, Sainz, Alonso, Magnussen and Perez completed the top 10.
Alpine’s Gasly was left disappointed after only achieving the 11th fastest time of the session, which knocked him out of Q3. He was followed by Zhou and Bottas.
RB’s Tsunoda and Aston Martin’s Stroll completed the remaining spots.
Q3
It was Red Bull’s Verstappen who claimed Pole for Sunday’s Grand Prix. The World Champion set a laptime of 1:20.520s. Russell was closely behind by +0.055s, and Norris third by +0.252s. All with the soft compounds.
Piastri will start in fourth, alongside his teammate. Leclerc and Sainz were split in half by Hamilton, who starts P6.
Alonso got the 8th fastest time, while Sergio Perez achieved only 9th. Not what Red Bull expects from the Mexican.
Magnussen completed the grid in P10.