Track limits on the scene again! Pole position in Qatar won by Verstappen, Hamilton and Alonso also high

Formula 1 kicked off the race weekend on Friday with the seventeenth race of the season. Qualifying for the Qatar Grand Prix was scheduled for 19:00. This was dominated by Max Verstappen, who won two qualifying segments in addition to Q2. The track limits made a big mess of the standings.

The first part of qualifying (Q1)

Max Verstappen won the opening qualifying segment at the Lusail International Circuit, but with no extra-large lead. The reigning champion set a time of 1:25.007, with Lando Norris only 124 thousandths of a second behind him.

Fernando Alonso showed very solid speed in Q1, finishing third with a time of 1:25.223. His teammate Lance Stroll, it should be noted, finished seventeenth with a time of 1:26.345. That’s a huge loss indeed considering the Canadian is driving the same car as the star Alonso.

As for the drivers who didn’t make it to Q2, the first part of qualifying didn’t bring any big surprises. Zhou Kuan-yu will take the last place at the start of the Qatar Grand Prix, with nineteenth-placed Kevin Magnussen filling in the back row.

The eighteenth fastest time was set by Liam Lawson, who replaces the still injured Daniel Ricciardo in Qatar. Stroll was seventeenth, with Williams driver Logan Sargeant sixteenth.

Second part of qualifying (Q2)

While Lewis Hamilton only just progressed from the first qualifying segment, he won the second with a time of 1:24.381. Verstappen was one tenth of a second behind him, with McLaren drivers taking third and fourth.

Alonso did not shine with his time this time, but he did advance to the second part of qualifying, as did George Russell, both Alpine drivers, Charles Leclerc and Valtteri Bottas. On the other hand, Carlos Sainz (12th) and Sergio Pérez (13th) must taste the bitterness of elimination, whose fast time was deleted by the race directorate due to exceeding the track limits.

Eleventh-placed Júki Cunoda, fourteenth-placed Alexander Albon also failed to qualify for Q3. The latter was still trying to set a time at the end of Q2 that would have put him in the top ten. However, he made a mistake, went off the track and his hopes were over.

Fifteenth-placed Nico Hülkenberg also failed to qualify for Q3 and will understandably take up the fifteenth starting slot at the start of the Qatar Grand Prix on Sunday.

Second part of qualifying Q3

The battle for pole position was dominated by Verstappen, who set a time of 1:23.778. If the battle for the top spot at the start of the Qatar Grand Prix was anything to go by, it was certainly the track limits. Norris set a time that would have been good enough for second place.

However, he exceeded the track limits on the exit of Turn 10 and his first fast attempt was also wiped out. The British driver therefore did not set any timed lap time and will start tenth on Sunday.

Verstappen will be joined on the front row by Russell, with Hamilton in third place. Alonso took the fourth position. However, this position originally belonged to Oscar Piastri, who also had his time deleted due to exceeding the track limits.

Norris’ teammate will therefore start the Qatar Grand Prix from sixth place, with Charles Leclerc next to him in fifth. The full starting order for Sunday’s race can be seen below.

Source: F1 TV, Twitter / X