#Qualifying Report: @Max33Verstappen takes 10th pole of season at #QatarGP.

Verstappen Qatar GP Pole – Red Bull’s Max Verstappen claimed his 30^th-career pole position at the Qatar GP ahead of Lando Norris before the McLaren pairing had their lap times invalidated after the session meaning Mercedes’ George Russell and Lewis Hamilton take second and third on the grid for Sunday’s race.

The qualifying session at the Losail International Circuit was dominated by track limit infringements, along with drivers struggling for rear grip around the high-speed circuit.

In Q3, Verstappen held provisional pole with the quickest sector one and three efforts to post a 1:23.778 in the initial Q3 flying laps and was 0.527 seconds clear of Hamilton with Russell a further 0.636 seconds off the championship leader in third.

In the final hot laps, Verstappen backed off his final flyer after making a small mistake, but managed to maintain pole from his first lap and was 0.441 seconds faster than Russell as Hamilton wound up 0.527 adrift of the Dutchman.

Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso took fourth and was ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc who completed the top five with the latter aborting his second flying lap after needing two attempts to post an effort on the first run in the last hot-lap as the Monegasque driver went off at turn four – a spot, which was a repeated issue for the Ferrari driver throughout the session.

McLaren’s Oscar Piastri initially held third but was relegated down to sixth on the grid due to a track limits infringement at turn 14 with the Australian responding “Ah well, I’ll try again tomorrow” during his post-qualifying interview with Naomi Schiff.

BWT Alpine F1 Team’s Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon were seventh and eighth respectively with Alfa Romeo’s Valtteri Bottas taking ninth.

McLaren’s Lando Norris posted a 1:24.074 on his final flyer, which at first had the Briton up in P2 and only 0.3 off Verstappen’s effort but was deleted due to a track limits violation at turn ten. Norris wound up with no time set and starts 10^th on the grid.

In the second qualifying stage, which was topped by Hamilton, AlphaTauri’s Yuki Tsunoda was the quickest of the Q2 eliminatees in 11^th place and ahead of shock elimination Carlos Sainz who wounded up 12^th and the Ferrari driver is currently under investigation by the stewards for driving erratically in an incident with Verstappen.

Red Bull Racing’s Sergio Perez was the other shock knock out after having his lap-time invalidated for exceeding track limits at turn five, ending up 13^th.

Williams Racing’s Alexander Albon could not improve on his final flyer in his attempt to progress into Q3 after running wide and starts in 14^th, in-front of Haas F1 Team’s Nico Hulkenberg who was the slowest of the Q2 runners.

In the opening segment, which was topped by Verstappen, a late improvement from Williams Racing’s Albon of a 1:26.118 effort knocked out his team-mate Logan Sargeant meaning the American will start Sunday’s Qatar Grand Prix 16^th on the grid.

Aston Martin’s Lance Stroll qualified in 17^th and in-front of AlphaTauri’s Liam Lawson who place 18^th as Haas F1 Team’s Kevin Magnussen and Alfa Romeo’s Zhou Guanyu brought up the rear.

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

2023 Qatar GP Qualifying – The Top Three

2023 Qatar GP Pole Position – Max Verstappen, #1, Oracle Red Bull Racing, Honda-RBPT, RB19, 1:23.778:

“Great start to the weekend. It’s quite tricky out there, but I’m very happy to be on pole, it’s been a good day for us. Let’s make sure tomorrow we have a good day as well.”

2^nd Place – George Russell, #63, Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula 1 Team, F1 W14, +0.441:

“Really happy to be [P2], it’s better than we expected. Our fight is with Ferrari to secure P2 in the constructors’ championship.”

3^rd Place – Lewis Hamilton, #44, Mercedes AMG Petronas Formula 1 Team, F1 W14, +0.527:

Interview not supplied.

#QatarGP FP1: @Max33Verstappen quickest ahead of @ScuderiaFerrari duo. F1

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