Qatar - Qualifying

Only a few hours after Piastri took his second Qatar sprint win, the drivers marched back toward the paddock to take part in Saturday's qualifying. With the constructor's championship on the line, tensions ran high in the McLaren and Ferrari garages. The British team looked much quicker in the first part of the weekend, but would that pace be enough to secure the pole, or would one of their rivals surprise everyone with a great lap when it mattered most? 

Even though the session began with Leclerc complaining about traffic in the pit lane, soon enough all the cars were out on track, putting their all into the penultimate qualifying session of the season. Throughout Q1 multiple drivers, including Albon, Colapinto, and Norris saw their lap times deleted, a theme that would persist throughout the qualifying hour. When it came to the championship rivals, the first session tipped the scales in favor of Ferrari but, quick as the Italian team was, it was no match for the speed of Russell's Mercedes. Albon, Lawson, Hulkenberg, Colapinto, and Ocon did not make it out of the elimination zone. 

Russell started out Q2 with a lap that became the benchmark for all the other drivers and was beaten only by an amazing effort from Verstappen. The session belonged to the two of them. They jumped between P1 and P2 on top of the leaderboards, leaving little space for anyone else to join in. Norris managed to snag the provisional pole for a while, but when the time ran out it was Verstappen who sat on top, having delivered a phenomenal last lap that consisted entirely of purple sectors. The bottom five of the session were Gasly, Zhou, Bottas, Tsunoda, and Stroll. 

The Ferarris began Q3 with efforts that, while good, were no match for those of Russell and Verstappen. The McLarens also did not impress on their first try, especially with Norris aborting his first attempt after finding some gravel. He also aborted his second timed attempt, meaning that when the clock showed two minutes remaining in Q3, he had no time on board. To the relief of all McLaren fans, he did manage to find a decent lap on his last attempt and jumped to P3. The front row belonged to the two men who had dominated the qualifying hour, Russel and Verstappen. In Qatar, it was the reigning champion who took the pole for the first time since the infamous Austrian Grand Prix.

Order of the grid: 

1. Max Verstappen

2. George Russell

3. Lando Norris

4. Oscar Piastri

5. Charles Leclerc

6. Lewis Hamilton

7. Carlos Sainz

8. Fernando Alonso

9. Sergio Perez

10. Kevin Magnussen

11. Pierre Gasly

12. Zhou Guanyu

13. Valtteri Bottas

14. Yuki Tsunoda

15. Lance Stroll

16. Alex Albon

17. Liam Lawson

18. Nico Hulkenberg

19. Franco Colapinto 

20. Esteban Ocon