Impressive Lando Norris pips George Russell to Qatar sprint pole
Lando Norris dominates Qatar GP sprint qualifying to take pole ahead of George Russell.
McLaren’s Lando Norris pipped Mercedes’ George Russell to claim pole position for the F1 Qatar Grand Prix sprint race.
Norris, who saw his title hopes end last time out in Las Vegas, was in peerless form in sprint qualifying as he topped all three sessions on his way to edging Russell to pole by just 0.063 seconds.
McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri was third, 0.159s slower than Norris.
"It’s tough, because it’s so quick around here," Norris said. "It feels like the quickest circuit of the year. I mean, the final sector just feels like you’re hanging on.
"Great qualifying today, especially to bounce back from where we were last time out in Vegas, it’s a nice thing to do. 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."
Crucially for McLaren in their bid to win the constructors’ championship, both their drivers outqualfiied the Ferrari pair of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc, who were fourth and fifth.
Newly-crowned four-time world champion Max Verstappen was sixth, 0.303s adrift of Norris, with 2021 title rival and seven-time world champion Lewis Hamilton just behind in seventh.
Pierre Gasly was eighth-quickest in his upgraded Alpine, ahead of Nico Hulkenberg and Liam Lawson, who completed the top-10 for Haas and RB respectively.
Fernando Alonso narrowly missed out on a spot in SQ3 as he took 11th as the highest-placed Aston Martin.
Williams driver Alex Albon was 12th, ahead of Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas, the second Aston Martin of Lance Stroll and Haas’ Kevin Magnussen.
It was another disastrous qualifying for Sergio Perez, who faced elimination in the opening session for the second weekend on the trot.
The under-pressure Mexican could only manage the 16th-fastest time, but there was similar disappointment for a driver hoping to take his Red Bull seat, RB’s Yuki Tsunoda, who was knocked out in 17th.
Esteban Ocon was 18th, ahead of Sauber’s Zhou Guanyu and Williams stand-in Franco Colapinto, who was slowest of all in 20th.
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