Oscar Piastri took pole for the Qatar sprint race in a great day for his Formula 1 title comeback aspirations as McLaren team-mate Lando Norris could only manage third, behind George Russell, while Max Verstappen starts just sixth.
Piastri looked really competitive in practice and throughout qualifying, a return to Qatar seemingly helping to restore his confidence and performance which has wavered so much since the Baku weekend in September. This is Piastri’s first pole of any sort since Zandvoort eight races ago.
To do it, he had to overcome Russell’s Mercedes - which had built steadily through the session to be in contention by SQ3 and briefly took the top spot, before Piastri jumped back up despite a hairy moment at Turn 4.
This was helped in part by Norris seemingly struggling to find track position to get a clean lap in and he was hindered by staring at the back of Alex Albon’s Williams on the final run, the car which finished last in SQ3.
Behind Norris, Fernando Alonso had looked strong all day and was third in free practice, second in SQ1 and overcame heavy traffic in SQ2 to put himself in contention, an excellent start to a weekend that Aston Martin begins behind one point behind seventh-placed Haas in the constructors’ standings.
Yuki Tsunoda somehow bested Red Bull team-mate Verstappen for the first time this season to take fifth. Verstappen lost his first lap for Turn 4 track limits, brushing the gravel and seemingly sustaining some floor damage, and then continued to struggle with porpoising on his final run, calling his car an “idiot”.
The result likely won’t alter Tsunoda’s fate in terms of whether he gets a seat next year, but can’t have hurt. Verstappen was one spot behind in sixth.
Kimi Antonelli was lucky to be in SQ3 - more on that in a moment - but took seventh, ahead of Carlos Sainz, Charles Leclerc who looked like he was in the fight for a spot on the front two rows earlier on, and Albon.
Hadjar and Hulkenberg undone
Isack Hadjar was making it through to SQ3, but lost his lap for track limits and did a lot of swearing on the radio, even by his standards.
Sixth in SQ1, 11th in SQ2 but still in a strong position.
Ollie Bearman (12th) and Esteban Ocon (15th) sandwiched their Haas team’s constructors’ position rival Sauber, led by Gabriel Bortoleto. Nico Hulkenberg wouldn’t have made SQ3 but also had a faster time deleted for track limits as he created a dust cloud off the track at the final corner.
Hamilton out in Q1 again
It feels like leading a section on Lewis Hamilton going out in Q1 is the norm, and therefore not that noteworthy, but it’s hard not to be shocked each and every time he struggles like this.
Sky reported that Hamilton had a higher downforce wing selected than his Ferrari team-mate Leclerc and that would explain part of why Leclerc managed sixth and Hamilton was almost three tenths of a second off even making it out of Q1. A shocking result, Hamilton’s lap looked clean but was ultimately slow.
There were a few dismal results compared to team-mates in this Q1. Lance Stroll was 16th while Aston Martin team-mate Alonso had concluded that session second. Racing Bulls’ Liam Lawson was just behind Stroll when Hadjar managed sixth in the same session.
Behind Hamilton, the one constant was generally how bad Alpine is, anchoring the order with Pierre Gasly two tenths ahead of team-mate Franco Colapinto.
Results
- Oscar Piastri (McLaren) 1m20.055s
- George Russell (Mercedes) +0.032s
- Lando Norris (McLaren) +0.230s
- Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) +0.395s
- Yuki Tsunoda (Red Bull) +0.464s
- Max Verstappen (Red Bull) +0.473s
- Kimi Antonelli (Mercedes) +0.477s
- Carlos Sainz (Williams +0.487s
- Charles Leclerc (Ferrari) +0.567s
- Alex Albon (Williams) +0.733s
- Isack Hadjar (Racing Bulls) 1m21.433s
- Ollie Bearman (Haas) 1m21.494s
- Gabriel Bortoleto (Sauber) 1m21.567s
- Nico Hulkenberg (Sauber) 1m21.631s
- Esteban Ocon (Haas) 1m21.666s
- Lance Stroll (Aston Martin) 1m21.807s
- Liam Lawson (Racing Bulls) 1m21.851s
- Lewis Hamilton (Ferrari) 1m22.043s
- Pierre Gasly (Alpine) 1m22.112s
- Franco Colapinto (Alpine) 1m22.364s
