As it happened: 2024 Qatar Grand Prix sprint race qualifying

This session has finished. No further updates will be posted.

Sprint race qualifying at the 2024 Qatar Grand Prix is coming up next

As usual drivers will have to run the medium tyre compound in the first two phases of this session and the soft in the final phase. Ferrari avoided the mediums in the opening practice session while Gasly, who qualified third in Las Vegas, did not run the softs.

Drivers start heading out as soon as the 12-minute SQ1 session begins. Kevin Magnussen and Lance Stroll join the track first, followed by the Saubers, Ferraris, Williams and Max Verstappen.

Magnussen puts up a 1’23.750, Stroll goes two-tenths slower, Bottas Valtteri Bottas beats him however with a 1’23.407 – which is a tenth of a second faster than Sainz manages.

The final drivers to join the track are the Mercedes pair followed by Fernando Alonso. Charles Leclerc jumps to the top of the times with a 1’23.259, Verstappen falls shy by just 0.032s.

A strong lap from Lando Norris puts the McLaren on top with a 1’22.785, 0.474s up on Leclerc. Oscar Piastri goes sixth in the other McLaren. Sergio Perez falls into the drop zone in 16th place.

Carlos Sainz Jnr takes the top time off Norris with half a second – then Leclerc takes a tenth off that to make it a Ferrari one-two. Four minutes left.

Perez is improving in the first two sectors as he bids to avoid another round one elimination.

The second Red Bull goes up to ninth place – will that be enough for Perez to stay safe? Three minutes left.

Piastri and Hamilton improve which leaves Alonso, Tsunoda, Zhou, Hulkenberg and Colapinto in the drop zone.

Norris does a 1’22.021 to go top and mGeorge Russell matches that to within a thousandth of a second. Russell, of course, took pole position for the Canadian Grand Prix after setting the same time as Verstappen.

Another improvement for Norris leaves him on a 1’21.356. Perez is down to 15th as the chequered flag flies.

Perez goes 13th but it immediately becomes 15th – he’s in big danger.

Perez is out in the first round again! Alexander Albon knocks him out.

SQ1 is over and the following drivers are eliminated: Sergio Perez, Yuki Tsunoda, Esteban Ocon, Zhou Guanyu and Franco Colapinto.

SQ2 is live and the sole remaining Red Bull is among the first cars onto the track, along with the Ferrari drivers and others.

Verstappen puts up a 1’22.188, Leclerc beats it by five hundredths of a second, but it’s well shy of the pace Norris had in the last session.

Norris doesn’t beat Leclerc but Piastri does by 0.08 seconds. Nico Hulkenberg is impressively up to fifth place but his team mate Kevin Magnussen had a lap time deleted for exceeding the track limits.

It’s tied at the top for the second time in this session – this time Verstappen has matched Piastri. But Sainz and Leclerc put a stop to that.

Russell vaults to the top of the times, Hamilton goes up to seventh, Norris is on a quick one though – and he goes quickest by just over a quarter of a second. Piastri lost his lap time, however, and is now in the drop zone so he must improve his time with two minutes to go.

Piastri goes third so the drop zone is now Lawson, Alonso, Stroll, Bottas and Magnussen.

Gasly and Albon fall into the drop zone. The Williams driver gets up to 10th which means Stroll is out. Lawson grabs eighth, Bottas is out and so is Magnussen.

Gasly gets safe, so does Lawson, which means Alonso, Albon, Bottas, Stroll and Magnussen drop out in SQ2.

Leclerc sets the initial pace in SQ3 with a 1’21.171 but Norris beats that by just over a tenth of a second. Piastri then beats Leclerc to make it a McLaren one-two.

Verstappen briefly takes third but Russell claims it from him, Hamilton goes fifth.

Are we on for a change of pole winner? Piastri is faster than Norris in the first sector. Meanwhile Hulkenberg goes seventh.

Norris abandons his final lap, his team mate can’t take it off him, it’s a McLaren one-two for now.

Verstappen stays fourth but Russell nabs fourth of Piastri. Hamilton stays fifth.

Sainz puts in a strong final lap to bag fourth, Leclerc takes fifth and that leaves Verstappen sixth.

That concludes qualifying for the final sprint race of the year – here’s the grid in full and our recap of the session

2024 Qatar Grand Prix

• Horner ‘believes 100%’ Verstappen did not threaten to crash into Russell
• Russell and Verstappen cast new light on clash which triggered explosive row
• Hamilton’s puncture not caused by mirror debris – Mercedes
• Another start-to-finish win shows Qatar GP could be F1’s most processional race
• “Am I dead last now?” Unheard radio from Hamilton’s disastrous Qatar GP