A Yuki Tsunoda turnaround combined with Max Verstappen damaging his floor led to an unexpected intra-team Formula 1 qualifying result for Red Bull for the Qatar Grand Prix sprint race.
Tsunoda and Verstappen will start the sprint fifth and sixth on the grid, with Tsunoda outpacing Verstappen in a qualifying session for the first time.
He was 0.09 seconds faster than Verstappen in SQ3, as a session in which Red Bull and Verstappen looked set to challenge the McLarens for pole position turned for the worse in the final segment.
Verstappen topped SQ1 and was within a tenth of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri in SQ2, but his crucial final runs were ruined by an error at Turn 4.
A loss of control and trip across the kerb and gravel wrecked Verstappen's first push lap and though he got a second attempt at the end of SQ3, that was compromised by the damage to the floor sustained in his off.
Tsunoda's session went in reverse. He started qualifying almost three tenths adrift of Verstappen in SQ1 and then complained of excessive understeer at the start of SQ2.
"I might need to come in," he said. "It's just ridiculous, I just feel like I don't have [enough] front wing."
This was solved by Tsunoda making a bold call for an aggressive three-turn flap adjustment at a quick pitstop mid-session that meant he improved to fifth fastest and just a tenth adrift of Verstappen.
A mix-up with a yellow flag that Tsunoda thought was there but did not actually seem to be meant his first SQ3 lap was a waste but then a pretty tidy last lap was enough to nip ahead of Verstappen on the final runs.
"It's been a clean race weekend, pretty smooth, no issue happened in the practice and this qualifying," said Tsunoda.
"It's something that I feel more confident into qualifying."
The timing of Tsunoda's result could not be better, given Red Bull is poised to finalise its 2026 driver plans this weekend after the Qatar GP on Sunday.
However, Tsunoda's position is still extremely precarious. He is expected to be replaced by Isack Hadjar in Red Bull Racing next year and could be dropped from a race seat entirely if Red Bull opts to pair Liam Lawson with rookie Arvid Lindblad at Racing Bulls.
If there is any last-gasp chance to save his seat, though, Tsunoda has made a decent first go at it with probably his best qualifying performance all year.
Irrespective of it only being for the sprint, Tsunoda's pace compared well to Verstappen even before SQ3.
And another boost is that this was looking like a more competitive Red Bull showing - previously, Tsunoda has tended to look at his best versus Verstappen on weekends the car is more limited.
One cautionary part is that Tsunoda did fall to almost half a second adrift of the pacesetters in SQ3 - and the unknown extent of his team-mate's damage makes it hard to judge how much better an unhindered Verstappen would have fared.
However, Verstappen did not seem satisfied with his car's balance on the softs anyway, hence the error.
"Not good from the first lap, just really bad bouncing and very aggressive understeer that would shift into oversteer in high speed," Verstappen said.
"Just not what you want to go fast. Then you're locked in and we tried to change a few things on the wheel, but it never really worked. That made it quite tricky."
