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Oscar Piastri led his championship-leading McLaren team-mate Lando Norris in the sole practice session at Formula 1’s Qatar Grand Prix.
Norris and Piastri were in the middle of the timesheets during the initial running on the hard tyres, but when teams switched to soft running for the final 10 minutes, they were the clear benchmark.
Norris initially went three tenths quicker than Piastri, but after their second push lap on those soft tyres, Piastri made a big improvement and went 0.058s quicker than Norris.
He topped FP1 with a 1m20.924s just ahead of Norris with Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin completing the top three, just short of four tenths slower than Piastri.
Carlos Sainz was fourth for Williams ahead of Racing Bulls rookie Isack Hadjar.
Championship chaser Max Verstappen was second before the soft tyre running, but he complained of “disaster clipping” (energy recovery timing) through Turn 6 and ended up sixth, 0.580s slower than Piastri.
Alex Albon was seventh ahead of Charles Leclerc, Lance Stroll and Kimi Antonelli’s Mercedes.
George Russell was the quickest driver on the hard tyres but didn’t find much improvement on the soft tyre, ending up exactly ninth tenths slower than Piastri in 14th place.
This was the only practice session this weekend as it's a sprint event, with sprint qualifying next up on Friday.
Result
1 Oscar Piastri (McLaren) 1m20.924s
2 Lando Norris (McLaren) +0.058s
3 Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) +0.386s
4 Carlos Sainz (Williams) +0.480s
5 Isack Hadjar (Racing Bulls) +0.579s
6 Max Verstappen (Red Bull) +0.580s
7 Alex Albon (Williams) +0.685s
8 Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) +0.744s
9 Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) +0.745s
10 Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) +0.774s
11 Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber) +0.859s
12 Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) +0.870s
13 Yuki Tsunoda (Red Bull) +0.872s
14 George Russell (Mercedes) +0.900s
15 Ollie Bearman (Haas) +1.002s
16 Gabriel Bortoleto (Sauber) +1.002s
17 Esteban Ocon (Haas) +1.172s
18 Pierre Gasly (Alpine) +1.500s
19 Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls) +1.638s
20 Franco Colapinto (Alpine) +2.605s
