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Oscar Piastri beat Lando Norris to pole position for Formula 1’s 2025 Qatar Grand Prix, after Norris made a crucial mistake on his final flying lap in Q3.
Norris held a narrow 0.035s edge on Piastri heading into the final runs of qualifying at the Losail F1 circuit, but had to abort his final Q3 lap after understeering wide at Turn 2.
There wasn’t enough time left for championship leader Norris to cool down his tyres and go again and he didn't have enough fuel anyway, so he returned to the pits as Piastri completed a clean final lap to take pole by a tenth of a second.
This came off the back of a tricky time in Q2 for Norris, who required a second run after his first lap was deleted for exceeding track limits.
Max Verstappen couldn’t complete with the McLarens for pole, lacking pace particularly in the winding turns of the middle sector, but he found enough speed to beat George Russell’s Mercedes to third on the grid.
Kimi Antonelli made it two Mercedes in the top five, with Isack Hadjar winning the battle of the midfield with an impressive sixth fastest time for Racing Bulls.
Carlos Sainz, whose Williams team is under investigation for releasing him onto the track with plastic wrapped around his tyre, was seventh - with Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso, Pierre Gasly and Charles Leclerc completing the top 10.
Ferrari endured another torrid session, with Leclerc suffering several lurid moments in a car that’s looked evil to drive all weekend so far.
He battled his way into the too 10 but then suffered several high-speed rotations in Q3 that wrecked his tyres and meant he had to complete the session on used rubber.
Team-mate Lewis Hamilton fared even worse, eliminated in Q1 and quicker than no one except Alpine’s Franco Colapinto.
Gasly was the star of Q2, putting his Alpine inside the top 10 as Liam Lawson’s Racing Bulls, Ollie Bearman’s Haas, the two Saubers and Alex Albon’s Williams were eliminated.
Yuki Tsunoda followed up his first defeat of Verstappen in sprint qualifying on Friday by falling in Q1 again for the grand prix.
He was joined by Esteban Ocon’s Haas, Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin, a woefully uncompetitive Hamilton Ferrari and Colapinto.
1 Oscar Piastri (McLaren) 1m19.387s
2 Lando Norris (McLaren) +0.108s
3 Max Verstappen (Red Bull) +0.264s
4 George Russell (Mercedes) +0.275s
5 Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) +0.459s
6 Isack Hadjar (Racing Bulls) +0.727s
7 Carlos Sainz (Williams) +0.900s
8 Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) +1.031s
9 Pierre Gasly (Alpine) +1.090s
10 Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) +1.174s
11 Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber) 1m20.353s
12 Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls) 1m20.433s
13 Ollie Bearman (Haas) 1m20.438s
14 Gabriel Bortoleto (Sauber) 1m20.534s
15 Alex Albon (Williams) 1m20.629s
16 Yuki Tsunoda (Red Bull) 1m20.761s
17 Esteban Ocon (Haas) 1m20.864s
18 Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) 1m20.907s
19 Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) 1m21.058s
20 Franco Colapinto (Alpine) 1m21.137s
