Max Verstappen has taken pole position for Sunday’s Qatar Grand Prix after dominating qualifying at the Losail International Circuit.
Verstappen needed only one lap to storm to his 10th pole of the season, though a snap of oversteer owing to the low-grip conditions forced him to abandon what could have been a better time with his second tour.
But his first time of 1m 23.778s was more than quick enough to seal top spot, with the Dutchman 0.441s faster than the rest of the field.
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“Great start to the weekend,” he said. “It’s quite tricky out there with the new tarmac, it still needs to rubber in, and it has very peaky grip.
“Of course I’m very happy to be on pole. It’s been a good day for us.”
Before Verstappen lines up on the grid on Sunday, his attention will turn to Saturday’s sprint race, when he is almost certain to win the championship.
“First, of course, let’s make sure tomorrow we have a good day,” he said.
There was confusion after qualifying about who would start alongside Verstappen on the front row, with Lando Norris initially having set a time quick enough for second but then having it deleted for exceeding track limits exiting Turn 10.
The Englishman ended the session with no time, having also had his first lap deleted for running off the circuit. Either time would have been comfortably fast enough for the front row, around 0.3s behind Verstappen.
George Russell was subsequently promoted to second place for Mercedes, the car’s performance through the slow-speed corners enough to counter its high-speed weaknesses.
Oscar Piastri was briefly pushed up to third, but some minutes after the end of the session he was dropped to sixth for his own track-limits infringement.
The double McLaren penalty moved Lewis Hamilton up to third place, just 0.086s slower than his teammate to form a Mercedes two-three.
Fernando Alonso qualified fourth ahead of Charles Leclerc and the penalized Piastri.
Pierre Gasly will start Sunday’s race seventh ahead of Alpine teammate Esteban Ocon and Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas.
Norris qualified 10th without a Q3 time despite being one of the session’s quickest drivers.
Yuki Tsunoda will start 11th ahead of surprise elimination Carlos Sainz in 12th, the Spaniard’s ultimate Q2 lap scrappy in the low-grip, high-wind conditions.
Sergio Perez was the second big scalp of the intermediate session. The Red Bull Racing driver’s final lap had been quick enough for Q3 — albeit by just 0.022s — but had the time deleted for exceeding track limits at Turn 5, dropping him down the order.
Alex Albon will start 14th for Williams ahead of Nico Hulkenberg.
Logan Sargeant will start 16th after a commendable qualifying performance for the American. Sargeant had been neck and neck with teammate Albon throughout the opening qualifying segment and was ahead in 15th when the checkered flag fell, but a last-gasp lap from the Thai driver swapped their positions, leaving the rookie out in Q1 by just 0.092s.
He lamented that he’d left time on the table through the high-speed corners, where his old-spec Williams — owing to him having crashed his new parts over recent races — will have counted against him.
Lance Stroll was knocked out of Q1 for the fourth race in a row, his deficit 0.987s to teammate Alonso in the opening segment to end up 17th.
The Canadian was furious out of the car, appearing to shove his way past one of his trainers on his way to the back of the garage while being directed to the front to be weighed.
Liam Lawson will start 18th ahead of Kevin Magnussen and Zhou Guanyu, who suffered massive 1.1s and 1.4s deficits to their teammates respectively.
