Oscar Piastri, pole-position for the sprint in Qatar » Max Verstappen complained about the car

Q3: Oscar Piastri and George Russell battled for pole position. Lando Norris did not force and Max Verstappen complained about the car

Piastri led after the first fast laps of SQ3, with a lead of 0.044 over Norris and 0.287 over Russell. In the second set of laps on the soft tyres, Russell managed to climb into first place, clocking a 1:20.087, but was overtaken seconds later by Piastri, who clocked a 1:20.055, securing pole position by 0.032 over the Mercedes driver, according to sportal.bg.

Norris was unable to improve on his time on his final fast lap, in which he also went off the track in the final corner, finishing 0.230 behind his teammate Piastri. The Briton will share the second row of the grid with Fernando Alonso, and Red Bull teammates Yuki Tsunoda and Max Verstappen will be on the third row.

The Dutchman did not stop complaining about the behavior of his car during the entire qualifying session. The main observations of the world champion were related to the jumps of the Red Bull car, which did not allow him to attack the fast corners on the “Lusail” as he would have liked.

Andrea Kimi Antonelli will start from seventh place, ahead of Carlos Sainz, who will keep him company on the fourth row. Slowest in SQ3 were Charles Leclerc and Alex Albon, who will share the fifth row of the grid for the sprint.

Lewis Hamilton eliminated in Q1, Isack Hadjar missed the Q3 limit

Isack Hadjar set a time good enough to qualify for Q3, but lost it due to going off the track at turn eight, which dropped the Frenchman to 11th, 0.057s behind Antonelli, who he had initially led by 0.099s. Along with the Racing Bulls driver, eliminated immediately before the decisive eight minutes of the fight for pole position were Oliver Bearman, Gabriel Bortoleto, Nico Hülkenberg and Esteban Ocon, who will occupy positions 12 to 15 at tomorrow's start.

Lewis Hamilton's disappointing end to his first season at Ferrari continues after the Briton crashed out of today's qualifying at the end of the first stage. In this, the seven-time champion finished only 18th, and only Alpine drivers Pierre Gasly and Franco Colapinto, who will start from the last line in tomorrow's sprint, were slower than him.

In addition to these three, also eliminated after Q1 were Lance Stroll and Liam Lawson, who finished 16th and 17th. Stroll was 0.034 slower than Ocon in the battle for the last place in Q2, after he and Lawson were the losers in the big improvement at the end of SQ1, which was reminiscent of the end of a session on a drying track.

What the grid looks like for the sprint race at the Qatar Grand Prix

Formula 1 driver ranking (top 10)

1. Lando Norris – 390 points

2. Oscar Piastri – 366 points

3. Max Verstappen – 366 points

4. George Russell – 294 points

5. Charles Leclerc – 226 points

6. Lewis Hamilton – 152 points

7. Kimi Antonelli – 137 points

8. Alexander Albon – 73 points

9. Isack Hadjar – 51 points

10. Nico Hulkenberg – 49 points