Oscar Piastri took a crucial pole position at the Qatar Grand Prix, beating Lando Norris in second and Max Verstappen in third.
Norris’ first run in Q3 was set up with a great first sector, and although Piastri fought back in the final two sectors, he was just 0.035 seconds off his teammate’s time. Verstappen had a lead of nearly half a second, but there was drama elsewhere as Charles Leclerc suffered a huge spin at Turn 15 and the Ferrari’s handling difficulties had been a factor throughout the weekend, with Carlos Sainz causing a bizarre red flag.
Williams released Sainz’s car from the garage, and as Sainz ran into the pit lane, his rear tires ripped the sticker off the garage floor and wrapped it around the rubber. The sticker came off after three corners, but once the first run was completed, the session was stopped to remove debris from the track.
When running resumed, Norris went wide in Turn 2 and had to abort his lap, but he put it all together leaving Piastri open for the door to take pole position by 0.108 seconds. This is a hugely important result given the difficulty of overtaking in Qatar, and a win would be enough for Norris to clinch the title on Sunday.
Verstappen struggled with his pace at times, but produced a strong final lap to secure third place on the grid, a quarter of a second behind Piastri. The Dutchman needs to get ahead of Norris on Sunday to remain in the title race, while Piastri is 22 points behind his teammate.
The Mercedes pair of George Russell and Kimi Antonelli will start fourth and fifth ahead of Izak Hajjar, Sainz, Fernando Alonso and Leclerc.
The battle to advance to Q3 was very close, with Leclerc passing by 0.010 seconds, but that was still enough for 9th place in the second half of qualifying. Hajar’s 10th fastest lap in Q2 was just 0.003 seconds faster than Nico Hulkenberg, who dropped out in 11th place ahead of Liam Lawson and Olly Bearman. Six cars ran within 0.114 seconds on each side of the cut-off line, with Gasly in eighth place leading the way.
Gabriel Bortleto advanced to Q2 by just over 0.1 seconds, having qualified 14th, but will start from 19th after receiving a five-place grid penalty for a collision at the start of last weekend’s Las Vegas Grand Prix. Alex Albon will be investigated for a pit lane violation after the session, but will start 14th due to Bortleto’s penalty.
The first half of qualifying saw multiple drivers going off the track, with Turn 15, the penultimate corner, being particularly troublesome. Several laps were removed, including Gasly’s lap where he exceeded the track limit at Turn 8, and although Gasly lost his fastest time, he still advanced.
Alpine’s Gasly dropped to 15th but was still able to continue the session, and Lewis Hamilton’s third successive retirement in the first half of qualifying showed the extent of Ferrari’s problems. Hamilton was faster than teammate Leclerc on his first run on the new tires in Q1, but was unable to connect on his final attack and finished 18th overall.
At this stage, the difference between Hamilton and Leclerc was 0.343 seconds, and the difference between Yuki Tsunoda and Verstappen in Q1 was also 0.289 seconds. Tsunoda outperformed Verstappen in sprint qualifying, but the Japanese driver was quickly eliminated with the 16th time.
Esteban Ocon finished 17th, Lance Stroll 19th and Franco Colapinto 20th, all qualifying for Q1.
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