@OscarPiastri pips @McLarenF1 team-mate @LandoNorris by 0.082s to #QatarGP Sprint Pole. #F1

Piastri Qatar Sprint Pole – Oscar Piastri pipped team-mate Lando Norris by 0.082 seconds to clinch pole position for the Qatar GP Sprint as Red Bull’s Max Verstappen rounded out the top three in another session affected by lap-time deletions.

In SQ3, McLaren’s Norris held provisional pole with a 1:24.536 and was 0.039 seconds quicker than team-mate Norris with Perez a further 0.846 seconds adrift in third.

In the final flyers, Piastri scored two personal bests and improved on his third sector to post a 1:24.454 to take P1 from Norris who took a purple sector one, a personal best in the middle sector and made an error out of the last corner and wound up second whilst Verstappen’s effort was only good enough for third on the grid. The Dutchman’s initial flying tour of a 1:24.543 was invalidated for exceeding track limits at turn five.

Mercedes’ George Russell’s late improvement saw the Briton take fourth on the grid and in-front of Ferrari pairing Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc who were fifth and sixth respectively as both suffered track limit violations on turns five and 13 on their initial hot-laps.

Haas F1 Team’s Nico Hulkenberg qualified seventh for the Sprint and ahead of Red Bull’s Sergio Perez who placed eighth and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso who was demoted to ninth for also exceeding track limits whilst Alpine’s Esteban Ocon completed the top ten.

In the second Sprint Qualifying segment, which was topped by Norris, Alpine’s Pierre Gasly will start the Sprint in 11^th after a late improvement from Hulkenberg and in-front of shock eliminatee of Mercedes’ Lewis Hamilton who had his lap time deleted for exceeding track limits at turn 13.

Alfa Romeo pairing Valtteri Bottas and Zhou Guanyu ended the session in 13^th and 15^th respectively as AlphaTauri’s Liam Lawson split the C43 entries in 14^th.

In the opening segment, which was topped by Russell, Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll was the quickest of the SQ1 eliminatees, wounding up 16^th and ahead of Williams Racing’s Alexander Albon who took 17^th and AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda who placed 18^th after having his lap-time invalidated due to a track limits infringement meaning Alfa’s Zhou advances into SQ2.

Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen and Williams Racing’s Logan Sargeant brought up the rear.

Mercedes’ Russell and Hamilton, AlphaTauri’s Lawson and Tsunoda, Williams’ Albon and Sargeant, Alpine’s Gasly and Aston’s Stroll are all currently under investigation for following race directors’ instructions regarding the maximum delta time.

You can see the full Formula 1 Qatar Airways Qatar Grand Prix 2023 Sprint Shootout Results Classification at the link: https://www.formula1.com/en/results.html/2023/races/1221/qatar/sprint-shootout.html

2023 Qatar GP Sprint Shootout Pole Position – Oscar Piastri, #81, McLaren Formula 1 Team-Mercedes, MCL60, 1:24.454:

“Very, very happy. Was a pretty good lap – I saw Lando on the big screen made a mistake, I don’t know how his lap was looking. Great work from the team. [Verstappen] is starting third so he’s not a million miles away but we’ll try our best.”

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#F1 Qatar Airways #QatarGP 2023 Preview. #QatarGrandPrix #Formula1