Oscar Piastri took the lead ahead of championship-leading teammate Lando Norris in a solo practice session for the Qatar Grand Prix, while title challenger Max Verstappen suffered a series of car complaints as he moved up to sixth place.
The McLaren drivers were slow to find pace in the first half of the session as the entire field lapped on hard tires at the dusty Lusail track, but Piastri and Norris quickly picked up the pace on soft tires.
Norris took the lead and Piastri was nearly 0.4 seconds slower, but the Australian fought back on the second lap to set a benchmark of 1 minute 20.924 seconds, 0.058 seconds ahead of his teammate.
Norris failed to improve in any of the three sectors after the second lap, and a mistake at the final corner sent him off the track and into the gravel, locking him into second place and ultimately delivering a comfortable performance for McLaren.
Fernando Alonso, in a competitive Aston Martin fitted with high downforce trim, was quick throughout the session and finished 0.386 seconds off the pace in third place. Alonso led the midfield group of three drivers by less than 0.2 seconds. Williams’ Carlos Sainz followed a further 0.094 seconds behind, with Izak Hajar a further 0.099 seconds behind in fifth place.
Verstappen, who won in Las Vegas and is 24 points behind Norris in the standings, started the session well, but was soon mired in a series of handling and performance issues that left him 0.58 seconds off the pace. The Dutchman reported that his front left hard tire had snapped after just four laps around the track, and shortly afterwards radioed that his steering felt “suddenly really strange” as he drove off the circuit in strong winds.
Later, as the soft run approached, Verstappen complained that “the shifts are weird and it feels really slow and harsh.” His suspension setup drew the ire of the world champion.
“I feel like the damping on the car is pretty bad,” he said. “Every time I turn off the throttle, the car jumps a lot.”
Finally, Verstappen pointed out that his power delivery went awry in Turn 6 on the right, capping off a difficult session for the Red Bull driver.
Alex Albon was seventh, 0.685 seconds behind, and Charles Leclerc was eighth, 0.744 seconds behind, despite being unable to gauge the balance of his Ferrari due to a power steering problem.
Lance Stroll in the second Aston Martin was ninth, with Kimi Antonelli leading the way in 10th, 0.774 seconds behind Mercedes. Despite Antonelli setting the fastest time on hard tires in the first half of the session, the silver and black cars battled for pace on soft tires.
Nico Hulkenberg finished his time in 11th place, ahead of Lewis Hamilton, Hiroki Tsunoda, George Russell, Oliver Bearman and Gabriel Bortleto.
Esteban Ocon finished 17th, ahead of Pierre Gasly, Liam Lawson and Franco Colapinto, but they were unable to put in a competitive lap on the softs and finished last, 2.6 seconds off the pace.
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