Max Verstappen took his first grand prix pole position for six months by beating George Russell by five hundredths of a second in Qatar.
The world champion completed a remarkable turnaround for Red Bull from Saturday’s earlier sprint race, denying Russell to secure his first pole since June. However he is under investigation for failing to obey the maximum delta time.
Russell will start alongside him on the front row ahead of the two McLarens of Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri.
Q1
After the sprint race, parc ferme restrictions had been lifted to allow teams to change the set up of their cars. But once they left the garage in Q1, they were restricted once again.
Kevin Magnussen was the first driver to complete a flying lap and then became the first to have a time deleted for exceeding track limits at turn one. Both Williams drivers Alexander Albon and Franco Colapinto also lost their first push laps for running outside of the white lines.
Sprint race front row starter George Russell set the best lap of the initial runs with a 1’21.519, a few hundredths of a second ahead of Lando Norris. Carlos Sainz Jnr jumped up into second place, milliseconds ahead of Norris, before Russell improved his own best time by two tenths.
Just as in the first phase of sprint qualifying on Friday, Sergio Perez was uncomfortably close to the drop zone as the chequered flag flew at the end of the session. However, this time, he earned progression into Q2 by making a significant improvement on his final lap to go safe in eighth.
Yuki Tsunoda also improved with his last effort, ensuring he would make it through in 16th. That meant that Alexander Albon’s qualifying had come to an end, as had Liam Lawson’s in 17th, the second RB driver blaming a slow Aston Martin ahead of him which he was told belonged to Lance Stroll. Nico Hulkenberg could not follow team mate Kevin Magnussen into the second session, while Franco Colapinto and Esteban Ocon were also knocked out.
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Q1 result
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Q2
The two Mercedes, two Ferraris, Max Verstappen and Lando Norris all headed out on used soft tyres for their first runs in Q2, while Perez and Oscar Piastri had the benefit of new tyres.
Verstappen was quickest after the first flying laps, less than a tenth quicker than Russell with Piastri slightly ahead of his team mate with those fresh softs. Perez was three tenths slower than his team…
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