Max Verstappen is poised to start the Qatar Grand Prix from pole position — his first since June’s Austrian Grand Prix — after edging George Russell to top spot in Lusail. The Dutchman, however, in under investigation for traveling too slowly on a preparation lap and appearing to impede Russell, who was also preparing to set a fast lap. The “super dangerous” incident, as the Mercedes driver described it, could yet incur the four-time champion a grid penalty.
Russell had held provisional pole after the first laps of Q3, but the qualifying session ended in unusual conditions, with most drivers struggling to improve with their final laps as grip suddenly appeared to desert the circuit.
Russell completed his final tour without improving his time, a slow middle sector undermining his effort. That left him vulnerable to Verstappen, who was only 0.045s behind him in the order. The Red Bull Racing driver, revitalized after changes made in the hours following his lackluster Sprint race, was one of the few drivers to find meaningful gains, improving by 0.1s to move into pole position.
“Crazy,” he said. “Honestly, I also didn’t expect that, but well done to the team to give me a car that feels a bit more connected.
“Once the car’s a bit more together, you can also push harder. It felt a lot better out there. I hope of course it lasts tomorrow in the race — I don’t know that yet.”
Russell — for whom second place is his third consecutive front row start in a grand prix, said his 0.55s defeat and failure to improve could have been down to the incident with Verstappen on a preparation lap that sent him off the road to avoid crashing with the slow-moving Red Bull Racing car.
“I ended up going through the gravel,” he said. “It felt like the floor was scraping through the curb and the gravel. Maybe that’s why we didn’t improve, I don’t know.”
McLaren, fresh from one-two in the Sprint earlier in the evening, locked out the second row, Lando Norris 0.252s off pole and 0.057s ahead of Oscar Piastri.
“Not the position we were hoping for after yesterday and today but the maximum we could do for sure,” Norris said. “I was pretty happy with the lap, just not quick enough compared to the others.”
Charles Leclerc qualified fifth ahead of Lewis Hamilton in sixth. Carlos Sainz was seventh fastest but faces an investigation of his own for being released unsafely from pit lane ahead of Hamilton.
Fernando Alonso set just one representative flying lap in Q3 to qualify eighth ahead of Sergio Perez, who bounced back from his bottom-five knockout in Sprint qualifying for his third top-10 appearance in the last six races.
Kevin Magnussen completed the top 10 for Haas. Pierre Gasly missed out on what would have been his fourth Q3 appearance in the last five grands prix by just 0.012s, incidentally saving Perez from another embarrassing top-10 miss.
Zhou Guanyu led teammate Valtteri Bottas to 12th and 13th in Sauber’s first double-Q2 appearance of the season since the Spanish Grand Prix and only its second of the season. It was also the second consecutive grand prix for which Zhou outqualified Bottas and just the third time all year.
Yuki Tsunoda was knocked out of qualifying 14th ahead of Lance Stroll in 15th.
Alex Albon will line up 16th after falling 0.026s short of a berth in Q2. Liam Lawson, who qualified 10th for the sprint, followed in 17th.
Nico Hulkenberg was a surprise Q1 knockout just hours after scoring two points for seventh in the Sprint. Radio from the Haas pit wall subsequently suggested the German didn’t have full battery deployment for being in the wrong state-of-charge mode.
Franco Colapinto qualified 19th, one up from his sprint qualifying result but now just 0.204s slower than his teammate, while Esteban Ocon qualified his un-upgraded Alpine last and 0.871s slower than teammate Gasly, who is benefitting from using a new front wing this weekend.
