McLaren takes 1-2 in sprint qualifying at Qatar

Oscar Piastri achieved his first pole position in Formula 1 by taking the fastest time in the sprint shootout at the Qatar Grand Prix. His teammate Lando Norris is second earning McLaren a front row grid slot.

Max Verstappen could only manage third but this position is enough to seal the championship with the sprint race coming up.

The session was dominated again by the focus being on track limits following the issues in Friday’ qualifying and changes to the Losail track following Pirelli discovering repeated high-speed kerb impacts were damaging the tyres.

In SQ3, where all drivers ran soft tyres having progressed on mediums in SQ1 and SQ2, Verstappen lost his first flaying lap for going too wide out of Turn 5, which was a place where wind was causing issues for the drivers.

That one minute, 24.453 seconds lap, completed when the Red Bull driver’s soft tyres were at their freshest, still would not have been good enough to get ahead of the McLaren drivers when they completed their opening efforts later in the final segment.

Unlike at other sprint qualifying events this year, the smooth new track surface here meant the drivers were able to push on for multiple laps throughout the segment, with the cars also fuelled to run throughout in anticipation of possible extra runs being needed in case of times being lost due to track limits.

Piastri’s opening time was shaded by his teammate’s one minute, 24.536 seconds, which Verstappen unable to beat on his second attempt meant he would end up behind the McLaren pair.

On their final runs, Piastri went ahead with one minute, 24.454 seconds and the focus switched to Norris behind, as he had led his teammate in the opening two sectors.

But when Norris ran very wide out of the final turn he abandoned his lap, which meant Piastri went one better than the second position he took in Spa sprint shootout qualifying earlier this season.

Behind the top three came George Russell, Carlos Sainz, Charles Leclerc, Nico Hulkenberg and Sergio Perez, with all apart from George boosted by Fernando Alonso losing his final SQ3 time for a track limits off at Turn 13 and dropping him from fifth to ninth.

Esteban Ocon rounded out the SQ3 top ten for Alpine.

In SQ2, Hulkenberg’s last-gasp improvement with the then-quickest time in the middle sector knocked out Pierre Gasly.

Behind, Lewis Hamilton was the shock knockout, losing two laps to track limits – including his final effort, which would not have been fast enough to progress in any case – as he ended up in P12 ahead of Valtteri Bottas, Liam Lawson and Zhou Guanyu.

In SQ1, Lance Stroll was eliminated in P16, as several drivers had their final times deleted, including Alex Albon and Yuki Tsunoda, while behind this pair Kevin Magnussen and Logan Sargeant also lost their final laps and ended up P19 and P20.

Sargeant ended up without a representative time on the board for Williams after his initial efforts were also excluded for track limits violations at Turn 13, with a similar situation also impacting Zhou in SQ2.

The session was preceded by a 10-minute effective warm-up session so the drivers could sample the new track limits at Turns 13 and 14 – painted kerbing lines onto the asphalt that reduce the track width by 80cm for the length of the kerbs at those points.

Verstappen topped the running, with a best time of one minute, 27.085 seconds, which he concluded with another verbal joust with his engineer Gianpiero Lambiase, who had wanted the driver to finish a lap after he had gone so wide out of Turn 5 that he found one of the few gravel traps at this venue.

So congratulations to McLaren with this fine team effort. Oscar Piastri did a superb job to take pole position. The sprint race follows and it will be interesting if Max Verstappen can take the championship.

Qatar Grand Prix, sprint shootout results:
1 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:24.454
2 Lando Norris McLaren 1:24.536
3 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:24.646
4 George Russell Mercedes 1:24.841
5 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:25.155
6 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:25.247
7 Nico Hulkenberg Haas 1:25.320
8 Sergio Perez Red Bull 1:25.382
9 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin 1:25.344
10 Esteban Ocon Alpine 1:25.510
11 Pierre Gasly Alpine 1:25.686
12 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:25.962
13 Valtteri Bottas Alfa Romeo 1:26.236
14 Liam Lawson AlphaTauri 1:26.584
15 Zhou Guanyu Alfa Romeo 1:54.546
16 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:26.849
17 Alexander Albon Williams 1:26.862
18 Yuki Tsunoda AlphaTauri 1:26.926
19 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:27.438
20 Logan Sargeant Williams 2:05.741