Oscar Piastri beat championship-leading teammate Lando Norris to first place in the only practice session of the Qatar Grand Prix, while title challenger Max Verstappen had a litany of car complaints on his way to sixth.
The McLaren drivers slowly found their feet in the first half of the session, as the entire field collected laps on the hard tire on the dusty Lusail track, but on the soft tires both Piastri and Norris immediately set the pace.
Norris drew first blood, with Piastri almost 0.4 seconds slower, but the Australian hit back on his second lap to set the benchmark at 1:20.924 seconds, beating his teammate by 0.058 seconds.
Norris was unable to improve in any of the three sectors with his second lap and a mistake at the final corner sending him off the track and through the gravel, leaving him in second place in an ultimately comfortable display of performance for McLaren.
Fernando Alonso, in a competitive Aston Martin with plenty of downforce, looked fast all session, finishing third 0.386 seconds off the pace. Alonso led a group of three drivers in the midfield, separated by less than 0.2 seconds. Carlos Sainz followed 0.094 seconds further back for Williams, while Isack Hadjar was a further 0.099 seconds behind in fifth.
Verstappen, winner in Las Vegas and 24 points behind Norris in the standings, started the session strongly but the hour quickly became mired in a series of handling and performance problems that left him 0.58 seconds behind. The Dutchman reported that his hard left front tire failed after just four laps on the track, and shortly afterwards he radioed that his steering wheel suddenly felt “very strange” as he left the circuit wide in windy conditions.
Later, as the soft runs approached, Verstappen complained that his “shifts have gone to s***, feeling very slow and hard.” His suspension stance subsequently drew the ire of the world champion.
“It feels like the damping of the car is very bad,” he said. “Every time I accelerate, the car jumps a lot.”
Finally, Verstappen noted that the power delivery was missing from right-hand Turn 6, capping off a difficult session for the Red Bull driver.
Alex Albon was seventh and 0.685 seconds off the pace, ahead of Charles Leclerc in eighth and 0.744 seconds behind, despite a power steering problem that prevented him from assessing the Ferrari’s balance.
Lance Stroll was ninth in the second Aston Martin, while Kimi Antonelli led the way for Mercedes in tenth, 0.774 seconds off the pace, with the silver and black cars struggling to make pace on the soft tire despite Antonelli setting the fastest time on hard tires in the first half of the session.
Nico Hulkenberg finished the hour in 11th ahead of Lewis Hamilton, Yuki Tsunoda, George Russell, Oliver Bearman and Gabriel Bortoleto.
Esteban Ocon finished 17th ahead of Pierre Gasly, Liam Lawson and Franco Colapinto, who could not complete a competitive lap on soft tires and finished last 2.6 seconds off the pace.
RESULTS
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