The Saturday in F1 Qatar GP was hectic after the sprint as the battle closed-up involving all four teams where Red Bull surprised in qualifying.
The Saturday in F1 Qatar GP was hectic as well from the sprint to main qualifying where the results kind of changed around. After McLaren showed its power in the sprint with a 1-2 finish, Red Bull bounced back in qualifying while Mercedes stayed in the prime position.
Lando Norris looked set to win the F1 sprint until the final corner when he gave way to Oscar Piastri despite pleas from the team to not do it since George Russell was close behind. Both McLarens were slightly off in qualifying to be third and fourth with Max Verstappen surprising with a pole.
The Dutchman was handed a one place grid drop which got Russell into the top spot to start Sunday’s race. Verstappen’s teammate had a better outing to make it in the Top 10 and his work in the sprint helped both of them to be in a good position for the grand prix.
Russell’s teammate Lewis Hamilton also felt much better in qualifying to be sixth and in the mix. The Ferrari pair felt good with their laps but could only manage fifth and seventh, with Charles Leclerc ahead of Carlos Sainz. Both reckon they need to hustle McLaren to keep the fight alive.
Russell: “I need to look back at it, to be honest, and see what it looked like from the outside. Obviously, we went wheel-to-wheel and into Turn 1 on one of the laps, I was on the inside and he closed the door pretty aggressively. We made contact. We was lucky to both stay in the race there and then a few laps later I committed to the inside and he pulled across pretty late. And when you’re doing, you know, 330, 320 into Turn 1, and there’s a big speed difference and there’s a closing of the door so late it’s pretty sketchy. But like Lando said, it’s just the Sprint. I take a lot of positives from the result because I think if Lando wasn’t being a team player, I think we’d have got past Oscar and could have had a good fight with Lando.
“To be honest, my first lap was really strong. I was really pleased with that. I think it was a couple of tenths clear. And then I just didn’t improve on that last lap. Obviously, I had a really scrappy out lap with the near collision with Max, and I ended up going through the gravel two corners prior to opening my lap. So it was not a good start. So that was probably the 55 milliseconds. It’s great to be in this groove at the moment, four front row starts in a row, which has been really pleasing considering where we were three or four races ago. And the race pace this morning looked great. So Max did a great job. Red Bull seemed to turn it around a little bit since yesterday, but let’s see what tomorrow brings. It’s going to be exciting.
“I mean, those inside starting positions were really tricky. I think every driver on the right-hand side made a poor start and that ultimately cost me the chance to fight with Lando. Now, obviously, Max up front, I think it’s going to be a really close fight between, I mean, all four teams. Ferrari looked on the same pace as Lando and myself this morning. So, I mean, I hope it’s going to be a good one, but the tyres seem pretty resilient. Maybe we’ll see another DRS train, I don’t know.”
Verstappen: “I mean, quite different. Just felt a bit more hooked up on entry, mid-corner, like everything that was bad before improved quite a lot. So I felt it straight away from lap one that, yeah, it all just felt a bit more consistent. And that’s exactly what we needed to be a bit more competitive. I think from the first lap in Q1, it felt a lot more promising, but then to get the tyres in the right window is very tough. So then it went away a little bit, then it came back again. And then, yeah, luckily for Q3, I think it was there. And yeah, very happy with how we turned it around. I mean, it couldn’t have been worse. So we just looked at it.
“And I mean, it’s not all super clear, but we’re like, well, we have to go and try this direction. We put it on the car and it worked. And of course, you know, a lot of people back at the factory analysing a lot of stuff already throughout the whole weekend. But at the end of the day, yeah, you have to make the decisions also on track if you want to do it or not. Simulator is running in the background as well. And yeah, a miracle happened! Already a step in a direction, and I think then we went a bit more aggressive on it, I would say.”
Piastri: “I had a good start. And then, yeah, I basically got a bit of clean air on the outside and was able to just get on the throttle and drive around. To be honest, there was more grip out there than I expected. You know, a lot of the moves on the outside last year ended in tears, so I was pretty happy that I just stayed on the track, let alone made up a spot. So, yeah, that got me into second, but the rest of the race was pretty hard work from there. I was aware it could happen. I was a bit surprised that with George half a second [behind] it did, but I was aware it was a possibility.
“So it wasn’t completely unexpected, maybe a little bit in the circumstances of the race. But yeah, you know, I think it just speaks of our teamwork and fairness for the team. It obviously doesn’t change the points and yeah, I think it just shows off our teamwork and lack of egos within the team. After a really strong Sprint, we maximised what we could do this afternoon. I was happy with my lap, it felt good, we just didn’t have the pace. We’re still in a good spot, and being ahead of the Ferraris is helpful in our Championship run.”
Norris: “I mean, having clean air is a beautiful thing, so I could control things quite a lot. And I did as much as I could to help Oscar. I knew George was going to be quick this race. I tried in Turn 1 already to stay quite tight. I knew George was on the inside. So instead of running wide and giving Oscar the dirty air, I tried to stay tight and give George the dirty air. So that seemed to work. And we got a 1-2 from there, which was lovely. And the rest, I think I could build a gap. Probably not a big gap, but I could slowly make some progress, but George was still very fast through the middle part of the race and towards the end, so backed off a few times to try and get Oscar the DRS again, because our target was to finish 1-2 today, and that’s exactly what we did. I made my mind up in Brazil when it happened. It’s a Sprint. I only care so much more about the Grand Prix, as does everyone.
“After it happened in Brazil, I made my mind up that I needed to do something to give it back. It wasn’t something that was really discussed. I didn’t have to do it if I didn’t want to. I told my engineer that I would do it. So he was the main one that probably knew about it. And I told him before the race if we have a bit of a gap and we’re first and second, and then I would try and do it. So he knew and he was telling me not to do it because I think the gap to George was probably a bit too fine for their liking. But, you know, Oscar did his part in trying to help me get closer to Max in the championship and give that opportunity a go. You know, I deserved that right to have a chance and that’s how we have to work as a team, when one of us has that opportunity. And I returned the favour today. I don’t think any of us are proud of necessarily winning a Sprint race or we’re also not too unhappy on giving up a Sprint race win.
“But we work together well as a team, and I think that’s probably one of our biggest strengths over everyone is how well we work together. I don’t think any other team would do such a thing and help each other as much as we’ve done this year for one another. And, yeah, it’s our strength, and we’ll continue to do that. I just made one mistake on my first push. I just dipped a wheel into the gravel. So yeah, my first mistake really of all of the qualifying and the whole weekend so far really. So I was bound to happen at some point, but not ideal. Then a little bit of traffic, not traffic, but just a little bit of some dirty air and that just upset my first push. So I backed out of it and went again for the final push. But I’m honestly pretty happy. I think my lap was good. In terms of result, obviously not very happy, but I feel like I got everything out of it. So I’m happy with that. I don’t think we were expecting a step. The car was already mint in FP1 and we couldn’t really get anything out of it. So I think that’s what we’ve done a lot of times this year is we’re very good at just coming to the weekend and the car’s quick from the off.
“We put it straight away in sweet spot. I think what Red Bull and Max showed is that not every team can do that. And I think that’s a strength from us. But they showed how much they struggled yesterday and how much just a few little tweaks to the car, how much that can make a difference to go from where he was yesterday to where he was today. So I think we just got a lot out of it yesterday. I did a good lap and I was happy. Today, same again, but when I’m on pole yesterday by whatever the gap was to George, five hundredths or something, six hundredths. That’s not like we’re way quicker, he’s slower. That’s like within the noise of a couple laps that you get to do. And today, George was ahead and Max was ahead again. So I don’t think we may be quite at the pace comparing to them, especially today. But hopefully tomorrow we can get something back.”
Hamilton: “We pretty much fixed the bouncing, so it was much better. It was pretty straightforward session, the car was pretty decent. I’m slow. I’m half a second off my team-mate in the same car. It’s been all year. I know I’ve still got it. Just the car won’t go any faster, I definitely know I’ve got it still. It’s not a question in my mind. [But I’m] looking forward to the end. It [fight with Charles in sprint] was alright. It was fair. Nice and close. I mean, I didn’t defend: I should have defended, but I didn’t. He was a bit quicker than me and he was probably going to come by anyway. So if I’m in the same position again tomorrow, I’ll put more of a fight out for sure.”
Leclerc: “Honestly, today was the best we could do. I was really happy with both of my laps. There was very little between them, I think two, three hundredths, but there wasn’t anything more in the car today. I honestly think that we are much closer than what we thought compared to McLaren. However, compared to Mercedes and Red Bull, it’s another story. It was surprising for us to see them so fast. We did not expect them to be so strong. But McLaren, we expected them to be better compared to us. All in all, we are fighting McLaren. We have a good race pace and more everything is possible. For the race, it depends [on] the way you see it. Because if tomorrow we overtake them at the start, then I wish the two in front were not there.
“If we stay behind at the start, then I’m happy if they can keep the first and second place. Realistically, yes, but we still had hope that we could turn the situation around. Because at the end, if we want to win the Constructors, we’ve got to finish in front this weekend. And we cannot afford to just take the points available. We need to overperform in order to target the Constructors. Tomorrow, we’ve got to do something special in order to gain some points on them. On our side, we fine-tuned a lot of things, let’s say. So, small details everywhere, but we did change the car. And it definitely felt a lot better. However, the performance of the car was just what it was.”
Perez: “We made progress on the day, with the testing I did this morning, I think we found some good direction. I think, unfortunately, I didn’t go as aggressive as Max did on the setup side, but I think it was definitely good progress. Hopefully, tomorrow in the race, that will be all a lot more together. The balance will be working a lot better. Sometimes, with this short racing when you are out of position, it just makes sense to prepare for the rest of the weekend, as there are not a lot of points, and the main race is tomorrow.
“Regarding sprint start, I was mainly… we wanted to have a big gap. One of the reasons we started from the pit lane was not to recover all the positions and get to the points. We know that would be quite hard, and we wanted a big gap to the people ahead, to have as much clear traffic as possible. Luckily, he managed to get through. It was important we tried a lot of things, but we wanted to have that gap to be in clear air for most of the race.”
The Top 10 featured Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, who has been thereabouts the points for the whole weekend and finally managed to get in a good position for the Sunday’s race. His teammate Lance Stroll couldn’t match him to be knocked out at the fag end of Q2.
Alpine’s Pierre Gasly also agonisingly missed out on a Top 10, as did Kick Sauber’s Zhou Guanyu – both were close to making it in. While Valtteri Bottas was up there with his teammate in Q2, Esteban Ocon continued to struggle in the last couple of F1 races with the team.
Haas’ Kevin Magnussen made it inside the Top 10, but Nico Hulkenberg had a ERS issue which hampered his run and left him knocked out in Q1 itself. Also, to be knocked out in Q1 was both of the Williams of Alexander Albon and Franco Colapinto.
They didn’t feel good with the car on the pace end, while Visa Cash App RB’s Liam Lawson lamented traffic in his Q1 exit, but Yuki Tsunoda in Q2 reckoned they did not have enough legs to make it in, amid a stiff fight for sixth in the standings.
Alonso: “I am happy we made it into Q3 in tonight’s Qualifying session and the car felt better than any other session of the weekend. We couldn’t make any progress in the Sprint but we made some set-up changes after this and it all seems to be working as expected. The team did a good job with this and also managing all of the traffic during a busy Qualifying session. It’s a good starting position tomorrow and it’s hard to overtake here, so hopefully we can translate this performance into the race.”
Gasly: “In the end, a day of mixed feelings for us with the Sprint Race and Qualifying. It was extremely tight out there in both sessions. We gave it our all in the Sprint and, finishing ninth, just outside the points, was probably the best we could achieve. Importantly, we learnt a few things ahead of Sunday’s Race. I was not too happy with Qualifying as we missed out on Q3 by just a hundredth of a second. We definitely had the pace for the top ten but it was very fine margins out there and we probably could have done a better job in maximising our overall performance. It’s a tough track, very tricky conditions but I think we are well prepared for tomorrow’s Race. We will aim to take the fight to our rivals tomorrow and target some valuable points.”
Guanyu: “Today was a very good day. In fact, I think it was my best qualifying session of the year, and I’m pleased to see once more this new floor is pushing in the right direction. Earlier in the day, we started the Sprint Race on softs to leave us more options in terms of tyre strategy for tomorrow’s race. It was obvious that the softs wouldn’t work, but nevertheless, we were able to collect valuable data and information. In Qualifying, the team did a good job of providing me with a well-balanced car, which allowed me to deliver a good lap. We still have a job ahead of us: let’s focus on tomorrow, give it all we have and do everything we can to score a good result.”
Tsunoda: “It wasn’t an easy day. In terms of performance, I think we were quite similar to yesterday. In Q1 we found traffic and we were on the edge with the lap time, but luckily we managed to get through, and after that, we had a clean Q2 where I felt I gave all with my lap. Unfortunately, it just seems we didn’t have enough pace and P14 was pretty much the maximum we could reach today. We’ll look at the data overnight from the Sprint and qualifying to try and understand where we can improve for the race. It won’t be easy tomorrow, but we’ll do as much as we can and will try to maximise everything.”
Hulkenberg: “It’s a nice feeling to get points already on a Saturday, which is not a normal, or a given for us, so we’ll definitely take them. It was a competitive race, the pace was strong and solid, and it was good to be able to keep that Red Bull behind. In qualifying there was a technical issue regarding energy management around the lap – we didn’t have full deployment. We didn’t have full energy on the push lap which is very costly around here, so that’s why we’re out in Q1. We’ll try to make progress and recover as much as possible but racing and overtaking here is very difficult. You’ve seen this morning racing is quite static, but we’ll give it our best shot tomorrow.”
Albon: “We just weren’t quick enough today and we have been struggling with that all weekend. Teams like Alpine and Stake have been bringing upgrades, so we’ve just fallen a little behind. We made some good changes between the Sprint Race and Qualifying, but it wasn’t quite enough; we also got caught out a little bit with wind at the end of our Quali lap. Tomorrow we’ll try to learn and do the best job that we can but it’s not easy to overtake here so we’ll have to see what we can do.”
Here’s how F1 Qatar GP qualifying panned out
Here’s how F1 Qatar GP sprint panned out
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