The Friday in F1 Qatar GP was fast paced as McLaren set the pace eventually along with one Mercedes, one Red Bull and the pair of Ferrari.
It was much cooler and provided better grip on Friday of F1 Qatar GP unlike last year. It was fast paced too as times continued to tumble down lap after lap. While Ferrari looked slightly better in FP1 as they were hoping against, they were back to reality in sprint qualifying in the end.
McLaren took the upperhand as Lando Norris maintained his pace through, even though teammate Oscar Piastri struggled slightly which allowed Mercedes’ George Russell to sneak through to second. The Brit, though, showed good pace all-through the qualifying session as well.
His teammate Lewis Hamilton conceded that he didn’t have pace at all to be at the fag end of the Top 7 drivers along with Red Bull’s Max Verstappen, who felt no pace in the slower section which made it difficult to balance as the high speed part was not enough to move up further.
His teammate Sergio Perez was knocked out in SQ1 after a delay in the pits due to anti-roll bar issue, and he was further held-up by Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc which hampered him. The Monegasque hoped for better sprint qualifying after FP1, but he felt they were back to reality but Carlos Sainz was more positive about the situation.
Norris: “It’s tough because it’s so quick around here. It feels like the quickest circuit of the year. The final sector – you’re just hanging on, you know. It’s a great qualifying today, especially to bounce back from where we were last time out in Vegas, it’s a nice thing to do – so [I’m] happy. It was a decent lap, I made too many mistakes on my second, but we were coming here to get pole and we did that so job done for today. I mean, I want to win – we want to win every session as drivers. Our target is a one-two; we want to maximise points for our constructors’ today. We want to go for it. We know it’s going to be a battle, we know Mercedes will be quick, Ferrari will be fast, so not expecting an easy one. An exciting one for everyone watching so looking forward to it tomorrow.”
Russell: “[I] felt really strong all session. The car was really great and this circuit is really one of the best, when you get in the groove and that rhythm. It’s so fast, I went flat through the high-speed for the first time on my final lap in Q3 and confused the engine a little bit. I don’t know how much I lost, but I had a big recharge on the exit of the corner because I went through it flat, way too technical for this interview! But that was a bit annoying, when it’s like… I just nailed it and then I lost a load of the speed on the exit, but I think Lando was just a smidge out of reach. I think they’re in a championship fight, we’ve got nothing to lose – we’re going for the big result, so we’ll try and make a good start. Of course the Sprint is just a Sprint, we need to put our focus on qualifying as well, and so far so good.”
Leclerc: “Not good because when you give it all obviously, and we are only P4 and P5, it’s not great considering how important this weekend is for us. But let’s say that for whatever reason FP1 was a lot above our expectations; this I would say is in line with what we expected, so we’re coming back to reality. Obviously after FP1 there were hopes that we could do something better, but we didn’t. If we look at FP1, clearly yes; if we look at qualifying, no. For now the most representative is quali, so we are not in the best position. But we never know, it’s always different coming [into] race day.”
Perez: “We left a little bit late. We had an issue with one of the anti-roll bars and then to get my final lap, we were all opening gaps and then Charles came. We were fighting into Turn 1 and so on, and lost a couple of tenths there, enough to be knocked out unfortunately. It was a shame because I felt like we really progressed with the car from P1 to Qualifying. We had a lot more potential and it’s a shame that we just ended up here.”
Verstappen: “The Sprint probably will be tough to fight the cars around me with just the balance that I have in the car. For the other qualifying, let’s see if we can improve the situation a bit. I don’t expect it to suddenly be turned upside down and that it works. It’s not been amazing, let’s say that. Just no pace to be honest. Just slow. I just don’t really have the balance to attack the entry to mid-corner. The car is just a bit off so it makes it really difficult around here. The very high speed is okay but everything else is not okay and that makes it difficult to push. I think P6 is more or less where we should be, maybe P7 actually. It’s of course not where you want to be.”
Hamilton: “I’m just slow, and [it’s the] same every weekend. The car felt relatively decent, no issues. Not really much more to say. The long run didn’t feel too bad, but when you’re always back where I am it makes it really hard to be competing for – well, almost impossible pretty much – to be competing for wins from there. But that’s the Sprint, I’ll do what I can tomorrow. The car is fast, and George should be able to shoot for pole tomorrow. Who knows. I’m definitely not fast anymore.”
The Top 10 also featured Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, who continued his fine run of form in the qualifying trim especially against the likes of Haas and Visa Cash App RB. They both had one car each in SQ3 as well with Nico Hulkenberg and Liam Lawson – where both felt a bit undone by their finishing position.
Hulkenberg said the team needs to review their strategy, while Lawson had his lap time deleted which cost him. His teammate Yuki Tsunoda was not happy with the run plan as he was knocked out in SQ1 along with Gasly’s teammate Esteban Ocon, who lamented the lack of pace.
Haas’ Kevin Magnussen made it into SQ2 but had his lap time deleted which hurt him as the final run saw bit of traffic which cost him eventually. The Aston Martin pair of Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll were slightly pleased, even though they did not make it the Top 10.
Alonso was close to make it in which is a positive step as he feels. Williams’ Alexander Albon and Kick Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas had a good outing too in SQ2 which was the maximum they could have managed, whereas Franco Colapinto and Zhou Guanyu were not happy with their results.
Gasly: “I’m happy to qualify in eighth place in Sprint Qualifying. The top four teams were very quick in the end, so I think qualifying in eighth was the best we could achieve today. We are in front of one Haas and one RB who we are in a fight with in the Championship. Free Practice 1 was good for us and I felt good in the car in the conditions. In Sprint Qualifying, however, I was not as comfortable and we had to work hard to get through SQ1 and SQ2 building lap time bit by bit. Tomorrow, the top eight score points so we are in the mix. As we know, the Championship is tight so I expect a fight with Haas and RB in the Sprint. We must target points and we will give everything we can.”
Lawson: “The Team put in a lot of effort since this morning to find a step in performance and pace. It was great to see that translate on track. It’s a shame we had a lap deleted in SQ3. It’s one position, but we now need to make up two places for points tomorrow. However, we’re very happy with the step we made. Of course, there’s always more to extract and we’ll work on that overnight. We did a brief long run this morning, so will go through those numbers, and try to move forward. It’s very close with Alpine, Haas and us on track tomorrow, and we’re fighting each other in the Constructors, so the Sprint is very important, and we can take confidence from today.”
Hulkenberg: “It was a good, clean quali. We might have to review SQ3 as we had a different run profile to everyone else, so we might need to understand that. Otherwise, it was a solid session and again very close to Alpine and RB – we’re all close and it’s generally a compact field. It’s a mighty fast track, there’s a lot of grip on this tarmac, and certainly it’s physical and demanding. The Sprint is tough for anyone in the midfield to get points as it’s not the usual top 10 places scoring, so we’ll see, many things can happen and you have to stay in it. It’s all to play for.”
Alonso: “It was a better Sprint Qualifying for us here tonight in Qatar. We were quite comfortable in SQ1 and we just missed out on SQ3 by a small margin. The high-speed nature and temperature of the track seems to be bit better for our package. We have an opportunity to fight for some points in the Sprint tomorrow and hopefully in the race on Sunday too.”
Bottas: “Today’s result was better than our average this season, which means we made another small step forward in making it to the second stage of qualifying. The competition is extremely close out there and we seem to be right in the mix, so I’m hoping we can find a bit more pace for the actual qualifying tomorrow afternoon and work our way into the top ten. Of course, we’ll try everything we can in the Sprint tomorrow morning, but our main focus remains on Sunday and maximising our chances for the main race.”
Colapinto: “It was a tough day as from Free Practice we were struggling with the car. We didn’t really find the right direction to go in. I was losing time little by little through a lap in most corners which is always the most frustrating part because there are no big chunks of lap time lost in one place. The high-speed felt ok but when coming to medium and slower speed corners I was really struggling with the front end and balance. We tried to fix the issues with some setup changes after Free Practice, but it didn’t work as well as we wanted. However, with all the data we’ve gained from today and in tomorrow’s Sprint Race, I’m hoping we might be able to do something more interesting tomorrow in the main Qualifying session.”
Here’s how F1 Qatar GP sprint qualifying panned out
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