Verstappen leads Gasly in FP1 as F1 makes Qatar debut

Verstappen ended up comfortably fastest in the first 60-minute FP1 session around the Losail International Circuit with a 1m23.723s to finish 0.437s clear of Pierre Gasly’s AlphaTauri. 

Gasly improved to second with a late improvement to jump ahead of the Mercedes pairing led by Valtteri Bottas, who was nearly half a second adrift in third. 

Lewis Hamilton, who trails Verstappen by 14 points in the world championship heading into this event, complained of a lack of power in his Mercedes as he wound up fourth fastest and 0.786s down on his title rival. 

The seven-time world champion’s session was briefly hampered when he picked up front-wing damage after running wide over the kerbs at the exit of Turn 15. 

Away from the track action, F1 is still awaiting the stewards’ verdict regarding whether Mercedes’ request for Verstappen’s defensive move on Hamilton should be revisited. 

Yuki Tsunoda was fifth fastest to ensure both AlphaTauris held positions inside the top five, ahead of the Ferrari duo of Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc in sixth and seventh. 

Eighth place went the way of Sergio Perez, who ended up over a second behind his Red Bull teammate. 

Esteban Ocon and Lando Norris completed the top 10 for Alpine and McLaren respectively, with the latter suffering issues late on after a wide moment at Turn 15 triggered an “emergency switch” on his MCL35M. 

FP1 concluded with a late yellow flag caused by a trip through the gravel for Mick Schumacher after the Haas driver locked up at Turn 7 as the drivers adapted to the Losail circuit.