Leclerc beats McLaren pair to quickest time in only practice session at Losail

Charles Leclerc set the quickest time in the only practice session for the Qatar Grand Prix ahead of the two McLarens.

The Ferrari driver was four tenths of a second faster than the two cars his team are chasing in the constructors’ championship, with Carlos Sainz Jnr fourth in the other SF-24.

A handful of unexpected names following them on the timing screens. Yuki Tsunoda took fifth ahead of Valtteri Bottas, who posted a rapid time at the end of the session. Lance Stroll was the quickest Aston Martin in seventh. Las Vegas Grand Prix winner George Russell was eighth with Alexander Albon’s separating the two Mercedes in ninth.

Both Red Bull drivers ended the hour-long session in the bottom half of the times. Max Verstappen was 11th fastest and Sergio Perez down in 18th. The newly-crowned world champion had complained about having too much air coming through his helmet on his initial run, leading to him swapping lids during the session.

Traffic was, inevitably, a problem for several drivers with littler opportunities for drivers to make way for cars behind in the twisty middle sector. Liam Lawson was upset at Sergio Perez getting in his way early on – not for the first time this season – while Fernando Alonso had to take action to avoid multiple cars backed off in the middle sector.

Despite the high winds around the circuit, there were only a handful of minor offs in the session. Piastri and Verstappen tested one of the new gravel strips at the exit of turn 15 while Pierre Gasly ran off briefly at the double apex corners of turns four and five.

There was not a single yellow flag or significant problem suffered by the 20 drivers in the session. Esteban Ocon completed the fewest laps of all, 21, while team mate Gasly was the only driver not to run the soft compound in the session as he tested Alpine’s new front wing design.

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2024 Qatar Grand Prix first practice result

P.	#	Driver	Team	Model	Time	Gap
1	16	Charles Leclerc	Ferrari	SF-24	1’21.953
2	4	Lando Norris	McLaren-Mercedes	MCL38	1’22.378	0.425
3	81	Oscar Piastri	McLaren-Mercedes	MCL38	1’22.425	0.472
4	55	Carlos Sainz Jnr	Ferrari	SF-24	1’22.535	0.582
5	22	Yuki Tsunoda	RB-Honda RBPT	01	1’23.045	1.092
6	77	Valtteri Bottas	Sauber-Ferrari	C44	1’23.064	1.111
7	18	Lance Stroll	Aston Martin-Mercedes	AMR24	1’23.099	1.146
8	63	George Russell	Mercedes	W15	1’23.160	1.207
9	23	Alexander Albon	Williams-Mercedes	FW46	1’23.161	1.208
10	44	Lewis Hamilton	Mercedes	W15	1’23.188	1.235
11	1	Max Verstappen	Red Bull-Honda RBPT	RB20	1’23.213	1.260
12	14	Fernando Alonso	Aston Martin-Mercedes	AMR24	1’23.227	1.274
13	27	Nico Hulkenberg	Haas-Ferrari	VF-24	1’23.245	1.292
14	30	Liam Lawson	RB-Honda RBPT	01	1’23.562	1.609
15	10	Pierre Gasly	Alpine-Renault	A524	1’23.620	1.667
16	20	Kevin Magnussen	Haas-Ferrari	VF-24	1’23.715	1.762
17	24	Zhou Guanyu	Sauber-Ferrari	C44	1’23.880	1.927
18	11	Sergio Perez	Red Bull-Honda RBPT	RB20	1’24.039	2.086
19	43	Franco Colapinto	Williams-Mercedes	FW46	1’24.200	2.247
20	31	Esteban Ocon	Alpine-Renault	A524	1’24.280	2.327

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