Lando Norris claimed an impressive pole position for the Qatar GP Sprint as McLaren struck the first blow in their constructors’ title battle with Ferrari by taking first and third on Saturday’s grid.
Five days after he saw his bid for the Drivers’ Championship against Max Verstappen officially ended in Las Vegas, Norris topped all three segments of Sprint Qualifying around the high-speed Lusail International Circuit to claim a commanding pole.
But Mercedes’ George Russell – the race winner in Las Vegas – denied title-chasing McLaren a front-row lockout by pipping Oscar Piastri to the other front-row berth.
Norris’ pacesetting time of 1:21.012 was 0.063s ahead of Russell, with Piastri a further 0.096s adrift.
Ferrari, who trail McLaren by 24 points with two race weekends to go, had looked quick in the earlier sole practice session but failed to mount a challenge in SQ3, with Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc qualifying only fourth and fifth respectively.
New four-time champion Verstappen was never in the mix in his Red Bull and could only manage sixth, although that was still 10 places higher than struggling team-mate Sergio Perez.
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Sergio Perez racks up his seventh Q1/SQ1 exit after he fails to make SQ2 at the Qatar Grand Prix.
With no end to his on-track travails seemingly in sight as speculation continues to swirl about his future beyond the end of the season next week, Perez was knocked out in SQ1 in 16th place – the seventh time in a qualifying session this year that the Mexican has failed to clear the first hurdle.
Lewis Hamilton was again outqualified comfortably by Mercedes team-mate Russell and will start seventh, with Alpine’s Pierre Gasly eighth as the Frenchman’s fine late-season run continues.
“I’m just slow. Same every weekend,” admitted Hamilton.
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Following struggling in sprint qualifying at the Qatar Grand Prix, Lewis Hamilton admits that his car is not the problem and that he is ‘just slow’.
“The car felt relatively decent. No issues. Not really much more to say.”
RB’s Liam Lawson, who is eyeing up Perez’s seat in the main Red Bull team for next season, made the top 10 although lost ninth to Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg after his final lap time was deleted for a track limits infringement.
Norris takes control as McLaren deliver on expectation
Having experienced one of their few disappointing events of the season in Sin City last week, McLaren had expected their MCL38 car to be back on true front-running form around the 16-turn Lusail track given the presence of an array of long high-speed corners.
That prediction proved absolutely correct under the floodlights on Friday evening as the title-chasing Woking outfit delivered a near-perfect start to their Qatar weekend.
Norris set the fastest time in all three knockout segments and, although his end-of-session advantage came down from a high of half a second in SQ1 as the session progressed, the Briton always appeared to have enough in hand to see off his rivals.
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Watch onboard as Lando Norris takes the Qatar GP Sprint pole.
“It’s so quick around here. It feels like the quickest circuit of the year,” said Norris, who claims his first Sprint pole since the first short-form event of the year in China. “The final sector feels like you’re hanging on.
“A great qualifying, especially to bounce back from where we were in Las Vegas. It’s a nice thing to do.”
Norris, who stayed on pole ahead of an improving Russell despite abandoning a final lap which he admitted contained “too many mistakes”, is now looking to make his starting advantage count in the 25-lap Sprint against what he expects to be a fiercer challenge from those behind.
“I expect them all to be a challenge,” added Norris.
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Anthony Davidson analyses the Sprint qualifying laps of Lando Norris and George Russell at the Qatar GP.
“I don’t expect an easy race, for sure. I think the long run stuff could easily suit the Mercedes a bit more than it suits us, but I’m still hopeful that we can get a good race in.
“And we want to score maximum points from a constructor point of view, even though the points are minimal and one position is a point, we still want to go out and get every point we can.”
Having leapfrogged Piastri with his final lap, Russell admitted Norris was still “a smidge out of reach”. However, with McLaren the ones with a wider picture to consider this weekend, the Mercedes driver declared: “They are in a big championship fight. We have nothing to lose. We are going for the big results.
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George Russell said it was ‘so far so good’ after putting his Mercedes second on the grid for the Qatar Sprint.
“We will try to make a good start. The Sprint is just the Sprint. We need to focus on Qualifying as well.”
Sky Sports F1’s live Qatar GP schedule
Saturday November 30
12.10pm: F1 Academy Qualifying
1pm: Qatar GP Sprint build-up
2pm: QATAR GP SPRINT
3.30pm: Ted’s Sprint Notebook
4pm: F2 Sprint Race
5.15pm: Qatar GP Qualifying build-up
6pm: QATAR GP QUALIFYING
8pm: F1 Academy: Race One
8.45pm: Ted’s Qualifying Notebook
Sunday December 1
10.55am: F1 Academy Race Two
12.15pm: F2 Feature Race
2.30pm: Grand Prix Sunday: Qatar GP build-up
4pm: THE QATAR GRAND PRIX
6pm: Chequered Flag: Qatar GP reaction
7pm: Ted’s Notebook
Formula 1’s season-ending triple-header continues this weekend with the Qatar Grand Prix, live on Sky Sports F1. Stream the final two F1 races and more with a NOW Sports Month Membership – No contract, cancel anytime