Oscar Piastri beat George Russell in qualifying for the Qatar Grand Prix sprint, marking his first P1 start in any format since the Dutch Grand Prix in August.
Championship leader Lando Norris qualified third, while Max Verstappen struggled to sixth place.
Verstappen and Norris led SQ1 and SQ2 respectively on medium tires, but Piastri was faster after switching to soft tires in SQ3 and took provisional pole 0.044 seconds ahead of Norris.
Russell started the second runs and moved into first place by improving his first lap by 0.441 seconds, putting pressure on both McLaren drivers to respond. Piastri was the third to last car on track when a ‘lively’ bang at Turn 4 put him at risk of missing out on pole, but fastest times in the second and third sectors put him back in first place, beating Russell by 0.032 seconds with a new track record of 1:20.055 seconds.
When Norris failed to improve on his final lap, Piastri’s first pole in three months was secured.
“It was a good day, which is nice for a change,” he said. “It was just a day where we clicked from the start. A pretty big moment on my lap, but in the end it was just enough.”
“Thanks to the team. It’s a great car and we’ve looked pretty good so far this weekend.”
- Piastri starts quickly in the Qatar GP
Russell turned around Mercedes’ soft tire problems from practice to secure second place, taking advantage of Norris’ poor positioning for his final lap. The title leader was overtaken by Alex Albon late in his preparatory lap – which not only jeopardized his first sector, but seriously affected him through the downforce-dependent middle sector – before a wide moment on the exit of the final corner extinguished any hope of improvement, leaving him third.
Fernando Alonso was an excellent fourth, the Aston Martin 0.395 seconds off the pace, ahead of Red Bull Racing teammates Yuki Tsunoda and Max Verstappen, 0.464 seconds and 0.473 seconds off the pace respectively. It is the first time this season that Tsunoda has surpassed Verstappen in any format.
Verstappen was frustrated at being buried in the lower parts of SQ3 and complained during qualifying about his car bouncing and moments of sudden understeer, leaving him three places behind title leader Norris.
Kimi Antonelli scraped into SQ3 and qualified seventh, ahead of Carlos Sainz, Charles Leclerc in his quirky Ferrari and Albon in 10th.
Isack Hadjar had his fastest lap time removed for exceeding the track limits at Turn 8, dropping him from a safe 10th to an eliminated 11th. This furthered Antonelli in the process, the gap between them was 0.057 seconds.
Fellow rookie Oliver Bearman qualified 12th for Haas, ahead of Sauber teammates Gabriel Bortoleto and Nico Hulkenberg, while his teammate Esteban Ocon was eliminated in 15th.
Lance Stroll will line up in 16th for Aston Martin, ahead of Liam Lawson in 17th.
Lewis Hamilton was the first driver to take the flag in SQ1 on a fast-moving circuit and was therefore eliminated in 18th, with the Ferrari driver 0.27 seconds short of a place in the next segment.
“The car won’t go any faster,” he complained after his second consecutive qualifying in the bottom five places. The seven-time champion qualified 20th at last weekend’s Las Vegas Grand Prix, and he also failed to crack the top 10 in either qualifying session in Brazil at the previous round.
Alpine teammates Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto never looked in with a shot from SQ2, missing out on a spot in the next segment by 0.339s and 0.591s respectively.
RESULTS
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