Max Verstappen remained a cut above the rest as he stormed to pole position for the Qatar Grand Prix.
The soon-to-be three-time world champion had a comfortable session at Lusail, with his initial Q3 time of 1:23.778s putting him four-tenths clear of the field.
McLaren had the second-fastest car throughout qualifying but couldn’t capitalise on it as Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri both had their best Q3 times deleted for track limits.
That allowed Mercedes to settle in second and third, with George Russell ahead of teammate Lewis Hamilton.
Q1
Verstappen set the pace from the get-go, leading Norris by a tenth in Q1.
The McLaren driver was under pressure late in the segment, after losing his first lap to track limits, but managed a late flier to easily secure a place in Q2.
In the knockout zone, a late lap from Alex Albon got him into Q2 at the expense of Williams teammate Logan Sargeant by less than a tenth of a second.
Liam Lawson was 18th in the AlphaTauri as Kevin Magnussen and Zhou Guanyu completed the bottom five.
Q2
Q2 saw two big surprises as both Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez were eliminated.
In Sainz’s case, the Spaniard simply couldn’t put a clean lap together as he finished 12th, while Perez had his last lap deleted for track limits, demoting the Mexican down to 13th.
Yuki Tsunoda missed out on Q3 by just 0.004s in 11th, Albon was 14th for Williams and Nico Hulkenberg completed the top 15.
A late lap from Lewis Hamilton put the seven-time world champion in P1, just ahead of Verstappen and the two McLarens.
Q3
Verstappen returned to the top after the first runs of Q3, leading Hamilton by half a second after Norris had his first lap time deleted for track limits.
A mistake on Max’s second lap opened the door for others to try and beat him but no one could get close as he sat as the only driver in the 1m23s.
Norris’ second lap initially put him P2 but a mistake at Turn 10 saw the Briton exceed track limits again and demoting him down to 10th.
That put George Russell onto the front row in P2 for Mercedes, with Oscar Piastri third in the second McLaren.
However, the Australian also had his second lap deleted for track limits promoting Hamilton upto third.
Fernando Alonso claimed a strong fourth for Aston Martin, ahead of Charles Leclerc in the sole Ferrari to reach Q3.
Piastri dropped to sixth, in front of the two Alpines led by Pierre Gasly in seventh and Esteban Ocon in eighth.
Valtteri Bottas put Alfa Romeo back into the top 10 for the first time since Hungary in ninth and Norris completed the top 10 with no Q3 time set.
