Dropped one position because of “driving unnecessarily slowly,” George Russell will start Sunday’s race from the pole position.
LUSAIL, Qatar—Max Verstappen might be a four-time world champion. However, on Saturday evening, the Dutchman proved he still wanted to win races, as he posted a 1:20:320 fastest time for Sunday evening’s Qatar Grand Prix. But what would have been Verstappen’s first pole since June was withdrawn hours later when stewards penalized the Red Bull driver for breaching Article 33-4. The Mercedes of George Russell was then elevated to the pole, and McLaren’s Lando Norris will start third.
That penalty wiped out Verstappen’s impressive comeback when it looked like Russell would have the fastest time of the night and also take his second consecutive pole. “Honestly, I didn’t expect that (his fastest time),” Verstappen said. “Well done to the team for giving me a car that feels a bit more connected and you feel you can push harder.”
Norris’s teammate, Oscar Piastri, took fourth and, earlier in the day, won the sprint race, but only at the last second, when Norris moved over to enable his victory, a payback gesture for what Piastri had done for Norris in Brazil. Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc was fifth, and teammate Carlos Sainz was seventh. Those finishes are important because McLaren and Ferrari are battling for the Constructor’s trophy. McLaren is 30 points ahead with two races left in the ’24 season.
Lewis Hamilton had been struggling all evening, but a last-ditch effort paid off and took sixth, while Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso improved for the first time in weeks and finished in eighth. Red Bull’s Sergio Perez had one of his best qualifying performances in a while, finishing ninth, as did Haas F1’s Kevin Magnussen, taking tenth. That finish gives Haas a good chance of finishing sixth in the Constructor’s Championship, as both RB and Alpine rivals finished behind him.
Verstappen knows Sunday’s race will be competitive. “You could see in the sprint that Mercedes, McLaren, and Ferrari were all quick, and now it seems like we are in that mix,” he offered. Verstappen is also concerned about tire wear: “The front left here gets eaten up quite a lot, so it’s about managing that, and I hope that with the setup we have on the car right now, it will be a bit better.”
ESPN2 will televise the race on Sunday, beginning at 11 AM Eastern.
