New 2024 Formula 1 world champion Max Verstappen scores his first pole since the Austrian Grand Prix back in June by taking a surprising P1 at Qatar.
The Red Bull driver edged out George Russell by 0.055 seconds. As Lando Norris was third quickest.
After a series of struggles across the sprint sessions, Red Bull uncovered an extra pace to compete for the fastest time in qualifying, and Verstappen praised the turnaround in fortunes over the radio after clinching pole.
Russell had set the pace on the opening laps of Q3 with a time of one minute, 20.575 seconds, but his own efforts to improve on his second lap of the final session ended after losing time in the second and third sectors. This opened the opportunity for Verstappen, who set a time of one minute, 20.520 seconds to edge 0.055 seconds out of Russell’s benchmark.
However, Verstappen has an investigation pending with the stewards having been pinged for apparently surpassing the maximum allowed laptime on one of his sighter laps.
Lando Norris took third on the grid as McLaren seemed to drop back in qualifying versus its Friday one-lap pace, and starts Sunday’s race alongside Oscar Piastri on the second row of the grid.
Charles Leclerc took fifth on the grid ahead of Lewis Hamilton, as the Mercedes driver split the two Ferraris for the main race, while Fernando Alonso booked himself into eighth.
Although Kevin Magnussen seemed on for ninth on the grid with his early opening timed lap to the session, he was just nudged down to P10 by Sergio Perez by just 0.075 seconds.
For once, Checo made it through to all three parts of qualifying and it was refreshing to see Perez getting a top ten grid slot after so many disappointing qualifying performances.
Pierre Gasly was edged out of a Q3 appearance in the final moment and as he was on the receiving end of a flurry of late improvements for Hamilton and Alonso.
Alonso, who was yet to set a lap in Q2 after aborting his earlier effort, fired his way up to a provisional seventh in the order with his final lap. This put Hamilton into the bottom five, but the seven-time world champion swiftly responded with a lap good enough for fifth.
This left Gasly out of luck, having been just 0.012 seconds shy of Perez on the other side of the cut-off line. He was nonetheless clear of Zhou Guanyu, who appeared energised by Sauber’s upgrades and clinched P12 on the grid – two tenths clear of teammate Valtteri Bottas.
Yuki Tsunoda was P14 as RB was still apparently short on pace in Qatar, as Lance Stroll was also eliminated in the intermediate qualifying stage.
Alex Albon was dropped into the bottom five at the climax of Q1 by Tsunoda, who crept above the cut-off line despite having not set a personal best sector in any of the three splits around the Losail circuit.
Unlike Tsunoda, Liam Lawson could not escape the drop zone on his final tour, but outqualified sprint-race points-scorer Nico Hulkenberg. The Haas driver received an apology over the radio from race engineer Gary Gannon, who noted that the team hadn’t “got the softs right”.
Franco Colapinto and Esteban Ocon also earned early exits from qualifying after propping up the order in Q1.
So what a turn around from Red Bull to give Max Verstappen the confidence and balance to get pole position. This qualifying result was more positive than the sprint race earlier. Going to be fascinating if the champion can win at Qatar on race day.
Qatar Grand Prix, qualifying results:
1 Max Verstappen Red Bull 1:20.520
2 George Russell Mercedes 1:20.575
3 Lando Norris McLaren 1:20.772
4 Oscar Piastri McLaren 1:20.829
5 Charles Leclerc Ferrari 1:20.852
6 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes 1:21.011
7 Carlos Sainz Ferrari 1:21.041
8 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin 1:21.251
9 Sergio Perez Red Bull 1:21.425
10 Kevin Magnussen Haas 1:21.500
11 Pierre Gasly Alpine 1:21.437
12 Zhou Guanyu Sauber 1:21.501
13 Valtteri Bottas Sauber 1:21.731
14 Yuki Tsunoda RB 1:21.771
15 Lance Stroll Aston Martin 1:21.911
16 Alexander Albon Williams 1:22.390
17 Liam Lawson RB 1:22.411
18 Nico Hulkenberg Haas 1:22.442
19 Franco Colapinto Williams 1:22.594
20 Esteban Ocon Alpine 1:22.714
Max Verstappen has sealed a surprise pole position for the Qatar Grand Prix, the Dutchman bouncing back from earlier struggles in the Sprint to beat George Russell in the final moments of qualifying by just 0.055s while Lando Norris took third place.
After the names at the top of the leaderboard changed throughout the previous segments of qualifying, Russell had secured provisional pole during the initial runs of Q3. However, the newly-crowned four-time world champion Verstappen stormed through to snatch the position after the final efforts, marking his first Grand Prix pole position since Austria in June.
It was announced later on, though, that Verstappen had been noted by Race Control for allegedly going too slowly on his cooldown lap, with replays showing that Russell felt he had been impeded by the Red Bull.
Norris will start from P3, meaning that the Briton will share the second row with McLaren team mate Oscar Piastri in P4, while Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc took P5 and Lewis Hamilton was P6 for Mercedes.
Carlos Sainz put his Ferrari into seventh, with fellow Spaniard Fernando Alonso having a decent outing for Aston Martin in eighth. Sergio Perez in the Red Bull and Haas’s Kevin Magnussen rounded out the top 10.
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/verstappen-beats-russell-to-surprise-pole-position-in-qatar-by-just-0-055s.3JBYIEP2IM8lEXsAmyId66
Christian Horner reckons Red Bull “threw the kitchen sink” at improving its RB20 Formula 1 car in preparation for Qatar Grand Prix qualifying, which helped Max Verstappen seal pole position.
Verstappen praised the team for its turnaround in fortunes, having managed only sixth on the grid for the sprint race – in which he finished eighth after a poor opening lap.
This prompted Red Bull to go for broke with its set-up when parc ferme opened up after the sprint, and Verstappen felt an immediate improvement in the balance – one that he’d dismissed as “terrible” earlier in the day.
Speaking to Sky F1, Horner said that Red Bull changed everything that it could to get the tyres to bite in the colder conditions, which it ultimately managed as Verstappen nudged ahead of George Russell in the order.
“It’s a great turnaround. I think the engineers and the team back in Milton Keynes have worked very hard,” Horner told Sky.
“They’ve got a good set-up on the car, Max has immediately felt [more confident] – his first comment was that it feels better. And then he’s just gone out and delivered in the most spectacular way.
“We pretty much threw the kitchen sink at it; pretty much everything you could change, we did change.
“You never know if it’s all going to come together in the balance. And it did, and he was able to really nail it. We really struggled yesterday, Turn 1, Turn 2, and particularly the last turn; a little bit at seven as well. And those corners suddenly came alive for us.
“That last lap, it was neck and neck with George going into that last turn and he nailed the last corner, and it was just good enough.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/red-bull-threw-kitchen-sink-at-car-set-up-to-produce-verstappens-qatar-pole/10678050/
Lewis Hamilton insists that he has “still got it”, despite the current struggles he is having in extracting pace from his Mercedes F1 car.
The seven-time world champion continues to face frustrations in getting the most out of himself in qualifying, as he again finished adrift of his team-mate George Russell in qualifying for the Qatar Grand Prix.
While Russell put his car on the front row, Hamilton ended up sixth on the grid, 0.436 seconds back.
This was a bigger gap than the 0.399 deficit in sprint qualifying that had left him confessing that “I’m definitely not fast anymore.”
But while not hiding from the fact that he has had a difficult season and things were definitely not gelling as he was hoping, Hamilton said on Saturday that deep down he felt he still had all the potential he needed to deliver in F1.
“Yeah, I know I’ve still got it,” he said. “Just the car won’t go any faster, I definitely know I’ve got it still. It’s not a question in my mind. [But I’m] looking forward to the end.”
https://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/hamilton-i-know-ive-still-got-it/10678094/
Max Verstappen has lost his pole position starting spot for the Qatar Grand Prix after being hit with a one-place grid penalty by the stewards following an incident with George Russell during the final part of qualifying in Qatar.
The Dutchman’s lap time was good enough to award him his first pole since the Austrian Grand Prix, but the stewards have opted to penalise him for driving unnecessarily slowly ahead of the Mercedes.
The Red Bull man was on a slow lap as he built up for his final attempt in Q3 with the Mercedes of Russell quickly catching up to him. In the end Russell was forced to take evasive action through the gravel, which he later theorised could have affected his lap.
The Mercedes driver said: “I ended up going through the gravel all over the floor, so it felt like the floor was scraping over that kerb and through the gravel so I hope it didn’t damage it.
“Maybe that’s the reason we didn’t improve – I don’t know, but it was a bit of a hairy one, two corners before we started the lap.”
In a document published by the FIA, the stewards explained that they heard from both drivers and their team representatives, combining this testimony with a review of a range of data including telemetry, team radio and onboard footage.
They noted that Russell stated that “if a car was going slow in a high speed corner, it should not be on the racing line”, but they concluded that the case was “a complicated one” and did not warrant the usual three-place grid penalty as neither driver was on a push lap.
The document said: “Car 1 did not comply with the Race Director’s Event Notes and clearly was driving, in our determination, unnecessarily slowly considering the circumstances.
“It was obvious the driver of Car 1 was attempting to cool his tyres. He also could see Car 63 approaching as he looked in his mirror multiple times whilst on the small straight between Turns 11 and 12.”
https://www.formula1.com/en/latest/article/breaking-verstappen-hit-with-one-place-grid-penalty-for-russell-incident.udi2rmsZdfGoAqxiluF2b