Verstappen on pole as track limits violations cost Perez and McLaren pair

Max Verstappen will start on pole position for Sunday’s Qatar Grand Prix ahead of the two Mercedes of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton.

The Red Bull driver took pole by four tenths of a second from the Mercedes pair. But both Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri were demoted places when both their final laps were deleted for track limits violations.

Q1

The first phase of qualifying began with track conditions significantly cooler than the earlier practice session. Red Bull wasted no time in taking to the track, Sergio Perez and Verstappen leading the field onto the circuit.

Perez set the first timed lap with a 1’28.495, but that was easily beaten by Verstappen’s 1’26.884, despite him catching a Ferrari and Mercedes in the later part of the lap. Charles Leclerc jumped straight to the top of the times with a 1’26.444 with his first effort, Verstappen’s next effort just a few hundredths slower.

The track limits around the Losail circuit proved challenging for drivers. Lando Norris lost a lap in the 1’26s for running wide at turn five, and Leclerc saw an almost identical time wiped for going off at turn four. Fernando Alonso kept his Aston Martin within the lines to post a 1’25.685, putting him at the very top of the order.

With five minutes to go in the opening session, the drop zone was made up of Zhou Guanyu, Alexander Albon – who had a time good enough for 13th deleted for track limits – Liam Lawson, Kevin Magnussen and Norris slowest having failed to set any legitimate push lap. Norris jumped from slowest to fastest with his next lap on new soft tyres, with Lawson also improving to push Nico Hulkenberg and Lance Stroll into danger.

Stroll needed a significant improvement to get safe. As the chequered flag flew, he could only jump up to 17th, over a second off his team mate’s pace, leaving him eliminated from Q1 for the fourth consecutive race weekend. Lawson was also knocked out in 18th, with Magnussen and Zhou eliminated on the back row of the grid.

The battle for survival came down to the two Williams drivers of Albon and Logan Sargeant. Sargeant sat safe in 15th, but Albon was the last driver to complete his final lap at the end of the session and the only driver who could eliminate his rookie team mate. Albon just pipped Sargeant’s best time by just under a tenth of a second, winning progression into Q2 at the expense of his fellow Williams driver.

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Q1 result

P.	#	Driver	Team	Model	Time	Gap	Laps
1	1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull-Honda RBPT	RB19	1’25.007		8
2	4	Lando Norris	McLaren-Mercedes	MCL60	1’25.131	0.124	7
3	14	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin-Mercedes	AMR23	1’25.223	0.216	9
4	81	Oscar Piastri	McLaren-Mercedes	MCL60	1’25.266	0.259	9
5	63	George Russell	Mercedes	W14	1’25.334	0.327	9
6	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	SF-23	1’25.452	0.445	10
7	10	Pierre Gasly	Alpine-Renault	A523	1’25.566	0.559	10
8	31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine-Renault	A523	1’25.711	0.704	10
9	55	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Ferrari	SF-23	1’25.808	0.801	10
10	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Haas-Ferrari	VF-23	1’25.904	0.897	6
11	11	Sergio Perez	Red Bull-Honda RBPT	RB19	1’25.991	0.984	10
12	77	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	C43	1’26.038	1.031	9
13	22	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri-Honda RBPT	AT04	1’26.058	1.051	10
14	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	W14	1’26.076	1.069	9
15	23	Alexander Albon	Williams-Mercedes	FW45	1’26.118	1.111	10
16	2	Logan Sargeant	Williams-Mercedes	FW45	1’26.210	1.203	10
17	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin-Mercedes	AMR23	1’26.345	1.338	10
18	40	Liam Lawson	AlphaTauri-Honda RBPT	AT04	1’26.635	1.628	10
19	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas-Ferrari	VF-23	1’27.046	2.039	9
20	24	Zhou Guanyu	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	C43	1’27.432	2.425	9

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Q2

Red Bull opted to allow their rivals to clean the track for them as the second session of qualifying got underway. The two McLarens were eager to get going with Norris and Piastri heading out on used soft tyres. Piastri set the initial benchmark with a 1’25.745, which was beaten by Leclerc’s first effort and then Verstappen, who posted a 1’24.758 to put car number one into position one.

The Mercedes of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton were among the last to set their opening laps, but when they did they were on new soft tyres. They could not quite match Verstappen’s pace, having to settle into second and third for Russell and Hamilton, respectively.

The Ferraris of Leclerc and Carlos Sainz Jnr waited until the track was quiet to push, but they both abandoned their next push laps after mistakes around the windy circuit. Piastri, Hulkenberg, Sainz, Valtteri Bottas and Norris were all sitting in the bottom five as the drivers headed out in the closing minutes for their final runs.

Norris, again, went from the rear of the field to the front with his next lap, with Piastri almost matching his team mate to go second. That put Perez in danger. The Red Bull driver only able to move into ninth with his last effort – and then he lost the lap time due to a track limits violation at turn five.

That made him the second major player to fall in Q2. Sainz had already lost his grip on a place in Q3 after Bottas improved his time. Joining Sainz and Perez in elimination were Yuki Tsunoda in 11th, Hulkenberg in 15th and Albon in 14th, who was forced to abandon his best lap after a mistake at turn 15 sent him off the circuit.

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Q2 result

P.	#	Driver	Team	Model	Time	Gap	Laps
1	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	W14	1’24.381		15
2	1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull-Honda RBPT	RB19	1’24.483	0.102	14
3	4	Lando Norris	McLaren-Mercedes	MCL60	1’24.685	0.304	15
4	81	Oscar Piastri	McLaren-Mercedes	MCL60	1’24.724	0.343	17
5	63	George Russell	Mercedes	W14	1’24.827	0.446	15
6	10	Pierre Gasly	Alpine-Renault	A523	1’24.918	0.537	17
7	31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine-Renault	A523	1’24.928	0.547	18
8	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	SF-23	1’25.079	0.698	19
9	14	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin-Mercedes	AMR23	1’25.241	0.860	15
10	77	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	C43	1’25.297	0.916	15
11	22	Yuki Tsunoda	AlphaTauri-Honda RBPT	AT04	1’25.301	0.920	16
12	55	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Ferrari	SF-23	1’25.328	0.947	18
13	11	Sergio Perez	Red Bull-Honda RBPT	RB19	1’25.462	1.081	16
14	23	Alexander Albon	Williams-Mercedes	FW45	1’25.707	1.326	15
15	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Haas-Ferrari	VF-23	1’25.783	1.402	12

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Q3

With his team mate and one of the two Ferraris not participating in the session, it appeared that Verstappen would face reduced competition for pole. The challenge diminished further when Leclerc lost his first push lap of the session by running wide at the exit of turn four, then Norris had his first time cancelled for the same infringement.

With two of his main rivals losing their first laps, Verstappen duly took provisional pole position with his first effort on new soft tyres, breaking under the 1’24s with a 1’23.778. Leclerc was almost a second slower on his next attempt on the same tyres, while Norris peeled off into the pits without trying a second lap.

The Mercedes were the closest to the championship leader after the first run, Hamilton moving into second, albeit half a second off Verstappen’s provisional pole time. Russell was a tenth further back in third, with Piastri sitting fourth in the first McLaren.

As the field emerged for their final runs, Verstappen looked to be in an incredibly strong position. However, despite setting the fastest first sector, a mistake at turn four forced him to abandon his run. Although he could have been vulnerable, no one seemed to be able to get close to the Red Bull driver.

Norris was the closest, but appeared to have run wide at turn 10. Despite his apparent track limits violation, Norris jumped up to second place, with Russell moving right behind him. No one was able to challenge Verstappen, however, who had enough margin over the rest of the field to pull into the pit lane and still keep pole position.

As the drivers returned to the pit lane, Verstappen was fastest with Norris in second and Russell third. However, long after the drivers climbed from their cars, Norris lost his second-place time for his turn 10 off, leaving him last of those in Q3 and promoting Russell to second. Piastri was promoted into third, but that turned out to be temporary, as during the post-session television interviews he was told that his own best lap had been deleted for a track limits violation at turn 14.

That ultimately meant that the two Mercedes of Russell and Hamilton were now promoted to second and third on the grid, with Alonso moved up to fourth. Leclerc was promoted to fifth, while Piastri fell to sixth with his best time deleted.

The two Alpines of Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon took seventh and eighth, with Bottas taking ninth for Alfa Romeo. Having failed to set a single legitimate lap in Q3, Norris was left stranded in tenth.

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Q3 result

P.	#	Driver	Team	Model	Time	Gap	Laps
1	1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull-Honda RBPT	RB19	1’23.778		19
2	63	George Russell	Mercedes	W14	1’24.219	0.441	21
3	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	W14	1’24.305	0.527	20
4	14	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin-Mercedes	AMR23	1’24.369	0.591	21
5	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	SF-23	1’24.424	0.646	26
6	81	Oscar Piastri	McLaren-Mercedes	MCL60	1’24.540	0.762	23
7	10	Pierre Gasly	Alpine-Renault	A523	1’24.553	0.775	23
8	31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine-Renault	A523	1’24.763	0.985	24
9	77	Valtteri Bottas	Alfa Romeo-Ferrari	C43	1’25.058	1.280	21
10	4	Lando Norris	McLaren-Mercedes	MCL60	No time		21

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