Lando Norris has taken pole position in Sprint qualifying for the Qatar Grand Prix, pipping George Russell to top spot on Friday evening.
It was a closely-contested session throughout in Lusail, with the McLaren driver coming out on top with his first attempt in SQ3 proving too much for his rivals.
Qatar GP: Lando Norris takes pole for Sprint in Lusail
The final running of the Sprint of the season saw the drivers forced to use medium tyres in SQ1, as per the rules of the format, with all 20 drivers looking to make the most of the 12 minutes available in the first part of the session.
A 1:22.785 for Lando Norris saw him go almost half a second clear of his rivals to set the early pace in the session, before Las Vegas Grand Prix winner put himself just 0.026s behind the McLaren driver.
The Ferrari pair found a significant chunk of time later in the session, however, with Charles Leclerc going quickest on a 1:22.156 and team-mate Carlos Sainz slotting in a tenth behind as the track ramped up in pace.
The end of the session is all about the bottom five drivers, however, with the Williams pair both in need of improving their pace after their first flying laps, alongside the Red Bull of Sergio Perez, VCARB of Liam Lawson and Alpine of Esteban Ocon.
The leaderboard shuffled all the time as the drivers continued to pound around Lusail, with lap times continuously improving under the lights in Qatar, Norris finding a huge six-tenth buffer for his final flying run on a 1:21.356 to go quickest.
Come the chequered flag in SQ1, however, Perez would again be knocked out in the first stage of qualifying when Albon put himself into P15, with Yuki Tsunoda, Ocon, Zhou Guanyu and Colapinto exiting at the first hurdle – Perez just 0.003s behind Albon and Lawson ahead.
A frustrated Tsunoda took to team radio after the session to air his grievances, saying: “I don’t understand why we’re so rushing in this qualifying, honestly.”
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He added: “I don’t understand, man.” And when the reply came: “Copy, Yuki. I hear you”, the VCARB driver replied: “Yeah, you don’t hear me, man!”
Onwards to SQ2, however, and the drivers had just 10 minutes to set the quickest time possible to make it into the top 10.
Lap times continued to ramp up through the session, but the drivers looked to nurse their medium tyres through the second part of Sprint qualifying for the best possible run on the final lap.
Oscar Piastri was pushing the limits in his McLaren, grazing the new gravel traps on the exit of corners and asking his McLaren team to check for floor damage as a result.
For those to drop out, both Aston Martin drivers, Alex Albon, Valtteri Bottas and Kevin Magnussen fell short of the top 10 – with Pierre Gasly making it through to SQ3 for Alpine, as well as Lawson for VCARB and Hulkenberg for Haas in the tight fight for P6 in the Constructors’ Championship.
That left a final eight-minute session on soft tyres for the remaining drivers to stake their claim for Sprint pole, with an open fight among the frontrunners in Qatar.
With the soft tyres not lasting as long as the yellow-marked mediums at peak grip, some drivers opted to build temperature in their set with a second build lap such as Sainz and Max Verstappen, while the likes of Norris and Leclerc went full speed from the start.
An impressive 1:21.012 from Norris was closely followed a tenth behind to lay down the gauntlet from the McLaren pair in the final session, with Russell, Verstappen and Hamilton rounding out the top five heading into the final couple of minutes.
Piastri set a purple first sector on his final attempt, but lost time in the final two sectors to not be able to topple his team-mate.
Verstappen and Russell set personal bests on their final laps, but could not depose Norris – with Russell moving himself onto the front row with his final attempt, just 0.063s behind Norris.
Qatar Grand Prix 2024: Sprint qualifying classification
1 Lando Norris McLaren 1:21.012
2 George Russell Mercedes +0.063
3 Oscar Piastri McLaren +0.159
4 Carlos Sainz Ferrari +0.269
5 Charles Leclerc Ferrari +0.296
6 Max Verstappen Red Bull +0.303
7 Lewis Hamilton Mercedes +0.462
8 Pierre Gasly Alpine +0.966
9 Nico Hulkenberg Haas +1.076
10 Liam Lawson VCARB +1.565
11 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin 1:22.433
12 Alexander Albon Williams +0.093
13 Valtteri Bottas Kick Sauber +0.105
14 Lance Stroll Aston Martin +0.166
15 Kevin Magnussen Haas +0.305
16 Sergio Perez Red Bull 1:22.718
17 Yuki Tsunoda VCARB +0.004
18 Esteban Ocon Alpine +0.188
19 Zhou Guanyu Kick Sauber +0.230
20 Franco Colapinto Williams +0.705
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