In the first ever Formula 1 qualifying in Qatar, Lewis Hamilton stormed to a dominant pole position under the lights at the Losail International Circuit by gapping his closest rival by 0.455s. Further down, a number of drivers found themselves struggling to make it through to the top ten shootout.
Hamilton managed to top all three of the qualifying sessions with some ease, as he and his Mercedes looked sweet and planted throughout the 16 turns. Going purple in all three sectors, the British driver dragged out a time of 1:20.827s, gapping Max Verstappen by over four and a half tenths, whilst becoming the only driver to break an 81 second lap.
For the second weekend in a row, Verstappen could only sit, watch and be left to fight for second in the fight over a single lap as his championship rival continues to carry his new found speed. Qualifying on the front row, Verstappen managed to edge ahead of Valtteri Bottas by nearly two tenths of a second. Apart being a long way away from where him and his team need to be, the Dutchman finds himself starting on the dirty side of, what will be, a sandy grid slot. The start of the race seems to be the only place where Verstappen could make a move against Hamilton, yet we could all be in for a surprise.
Bottas seemed at a lost with where his pace had gone. After looking like the strongest driver on track after Friday, Bottas would question what happened to his car overnight as the Finnish man could only qualify a whooping 0.651s away from his pole sitting teammate. On the potential upside, Bottas will start on the clean side of the grid with Qatar seemingly being a similar situation to Mexico when it comes to the grip at launch.
Once again, Pierre Gasly must be considered as one of the star’s of qualifying after placing his AlphaTauri in a strong yet now standard fourth on the grid, eight tenths away from the fastest time. The Frenchman did however go from a hero to almost zero at the end of the day after running wide at the damaging penultimate corner of turn 15, losing his front wing which caused a front right puncture – interrupting the drivers who were in the midst of setting a lap. But still, another show from him.
Alpine v AlphaTauri seems to be the most competitive fight this weekend, along with their battle in the constructors. Fernando Alonso managed to place his machine in fifth position, just 0.03s away from Gasly’s time in what has to be one of Alonso’s best laps since his return to the sport. Continuing with this team battle, Yuki Tsunoda managed to grab eighth on the grid, just two tenths away from his teammate, with what has been one of his best weekend performances so far this season – whilst also getting ahead of ninth placed Esteban Ocon by another two tenths.
In-between that fight, Lando Norris managed to salvage what was becoming a difficult day for McLaren. Norris managed to steal sixth on the grid despite seeming to struggle all weekend, beating their main rivals – Ferrari and Carlos Sainz as the Spaniard secured seventh after missing out on sixth by a tenth.
Like McLaren, Ferrari have also found themselves struggling and they showed in the other half of the garages. Whilst Norris and Sainz performed, Charles Leclerc and Daniel Ricciardo found themselves being eliminated in Q2, having to settle for 13th and 14th on the grid – a long way away from their teammates. Ricciardo would see himself trailing Norris by nearly eight tenths of a second, whereas Leclerc could not have been at more of a loss with his deficit, being two tenths slower on softs then Sainz’ time on mediums.
Rounding out the top ten was Sebastian Vettel who managed to scrap his way into the final session of qualifying, but was unable to gain any more places.
The biggest shock of the session was the elimination of qualifying in Q2 for Sergio Perez, which basically summed up Red Bull’s tough day. The Mexican attempted to go through on the medium tyres, but was forced to take a second run on the soft tyres yet was unable to grab a spot inside the top ten. Add this to Verstappen’s gap to Hamilton and the Dutchman and his team could be in for a very tough Sunday.
Lance Stroll could not go with his teammate, Vettel, in terms of pace and had to settle for 12th on the grid.
The usual crew at the back once again took to their positions. George Russell was the one who managed to escape from the Q1 elimination, but was unable to go any further then that and secured 15th on the grid.
Nicholas Latifi could not repeat the feat of his teammate, and instead placed himself in 17th, and in the middle of a Alfa Romeo sandwich being led by Kimi Raikkonen. The retiring Finn once again leads the team, with Antonio Giovinazzi trailing him by just over a tenth.
Haas took their usual positions at the back of the grid, with Mick Schumacher coming up just two tenths short of overcoming Latifi, meaning it was a strong performance from the German. Nikita Mazepin would have just 16 laps completed before qualifying after multiple issues, and found himself trailing his teammate by 2.4s.
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