Max Verstappen claimed his first pole position since the Austrian GP with a excellent lap in qualifying for the Qatar Grand Prix, while behind him McLaren made a mighty uncovering in their try to seal their first Formula One createors’ world championship since 1998 by claiming a one-two finish in the sprint race and with both drivers qualifying in front of their Ferrari rivals.
The result was someskinnyg of a surpascfinish for Verstappen, who claimed his fourth consecutive title at the last round in Las Vegas but had struggled in Qatar during the sprint, finishing eighth, once more conciseageing equilibrium. Red Bull establish their setup for qualifying.
Mercedes’s George Russell was second and Lando Norris and his teammate Oscar Piastri in third and fourth for Sunday’s race. Norris had ruled in the sprint before ceding prosper to Piastri right at the finish in acunderstandledgement of the Australian giving up his prosper to the Briton in the Brazil sprint.
With a car that sees in excellent establish at the Lusail circuit, McLaren will still be preferable they can finassociate finish a title drawt that stretches atraverse over a quarter of a century. They went into the greeting at the Lusail circuit directing Ferrari by 24 points, which was extfinished to 30 by the sprint.
They now insist to outscore the Scuderia by a further 15 points to finish the job in Qatar and asbrave they are 45 ahead before the final round in Abu Dhabi. With the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz in fifth and seventh on the grid, esteemively, McLaren have a sboiling at closing it out. Lewis Hamilton was in sixth for Mercedes.
Under the floodweightlesss of Lusail, Russell’s execution for qualifying was excellent on his uncovering lap. He set the pace with his first run with a 1min 20.575sec lap but was pushed challenging by Verstappen who was half a tenth back, while Norris aborted his speedy lap after going wide.
For the final runs Verstappen establish a minuscule edge and pipped Russell with a time of 1:20.520, five hundredths up. He is under spendigation for blocking Russell, however.
Earlier Norris had confessted that the team had telderly him not to donate up the place in the sprint but he felt he had to do it. “It was probably a bit sealr than I wanted but I had computed to do that since Brazil,” he shelp. “The team telderly me not to do it, but I thought we could do it. I am not here to prosper sprint races. I want to prosper the championship and I haven’t done that.”
With Sainz and Leclerc managing only fourth and fifth in the sprint it was obtain McLaren and with a pace contrastential that, if repeated in the magnificent prix, would put the British marque very much in the driving seat in terms of the championship.
Russell was third and his teammate Hamilton sixth. Nico Hülkenberg was seventh for Haas.
Norris had ruled the race thrawout, directing from pole as Piastri took second from Russell. Hamilton also made up places to apshow fifth, passing Verstappen and Leclerc.
The McLarens were shoprosperg excellent pace from the off but could not throw off Russell, who remained shielded on Piastri and with DRS the Briton aggressioned. The pair went wheel to wheel, with Piastri refusing to donate way, a scrap that would persist atraverse the 19 laps.
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Leclerc and Hamilton, who will be teammates at Ferrari next year, also vied weightlessly thraw the uncovering turns on lap 13, their wheels all but locked together with the Monegasque equitable having the edge on the Briton.
As they approached the final lap, McLaren had telderly Norris they were satisfyed to conserve the positions as they were but he was choosed to repay Piastri and in what was a hazardous manoeuvre, relieved up as they approached the line, apverifying the Australian to apshow the flag.
In qualifying, Fernando Alonso was eighth for Aston Martin, Sergio Pérez ninth for Red Bull and Kevin Magnussen 10th for Haas.
Pierre Gasly was 11th for Alpine, Guanyu Zhou and Valtteri Bottas 12th and 13th for Sauber, Yuki Tsunoda 14th for RB and Lance Stroll in 15th for Aston Martin.
Alex Albon and Franco Colapinto were in 16th and 19th for Williams, Liam Lawson in 17th for RB, Hülkenberg in 18th for Haas and Esteban Ocon in 20th for Alpine.
