The session on the Losail circuit was dominated by monitor limits transgressions, plus the drivers struggling for rear grip across the high-speed format.
Verstappen posted a 1m23.778s on his first run in Q3, which turned out to be the pole time as he misplaced the rear of his RB19 going by way of Flip 5 on his second try.
Norris had already misplaced a time to trace limits in Q1 and this occurred once more on his first Q3 flier, the place like Verstappen he went too huge at Flip 5.
He initially obtained to inside 0.3s of Verstappen’s main along with his second Q3 try, however edging out too huge by way of the lengthy Flip 10 left proved to be pricey for Norris and he was dropped again to tenth.
Norris’s errors promoted Mercedes driver George Russell to second, initially forward of Oscar Piastri and Lewis Hamilton, who had been second after the primary Q3 runs however deserted his second go after a wild oversteer second at Flip 7 despatched him off monitor.
However Piastri additionally suffered a late qualifying demotion when his finest Q3 lap was deleted for exceeding monitor limits at Flip 14, which dropped him from third to sixth.
With Hamilton as much as third, Fernando Alonso took fourth for Aston Martin forward of Charles Leclerc, who additionally deserted his second Q3 flier after needing two makes an attempt to set a time on the primary runs within the closing section as he went off at Flip 4 – a spot of repeated situation for the Ferrari driver all through qualifying.
Lando Norris, McLaren MCL60
Photograph by: Zak Mauger / Motorsport Images
Alpine’s Pierre Gasly and Esteban Ocon completed seventh and eighth, forward of Alfa Romeo driver Valtteri Bottas and the demoted Norris.
In Q2, Yuki Tsunoda topped the record of these eradicated, with Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez the high-profile early fallers forward of Alex Albon and Haas driver Nico Hulkenberg.
Sainz couldn’t acquire time switching to new softs late within the center section – abandoning his first lap after a second at Flip 7 and the getting concerned in an incident with Verstappen the place Sainz appeared to repeatedly minimize of the Purple Bull’s line because the ready for his or her closing Q2 efforts.
This incident shall be investigated now qualifying has concluded.
Perez was knocked out after dropping his finest time – one which solely had him on the fringes of the Q2 prime 10 anyway – for slipping past monitor limits at Flip 5 on what his closing effort.
In Q1, Albon’s last-gasp enchancment knocked his Williams team-mate Logan Sargeant out by simply 0.092s with the American driver ruing dropping time within the excessive pace corners within the monitor’s closing sector.
Behind got here Lance Stroll within the second Aston, forward of Liam Lawson, Kevin Magnussen and Zhou Guanyu.
Hamilton, Tsunoda, Lawson and Piastri additionally face a post-qualifying investigation for probably failing to observe the race director’s directions concerning the utmost lap time aimed to scale back visitors points in qualifying.
F1 Qatar GP – Qualifying outcomes