Plot twist at Losail: in the end it will be George Russell who starts from pole position at the Qatar Grand Prix. Among the curves of the Asian track, the speed of Max Verstappen had once again emerged, and at the end of qualifying he took the pole that he had been missing since the Austrian Grand Prix. Stopwatch stopped at 1’20″520, with the best performance achieved by the Dutch driver at the end of a last attempt in which he managed to prevail against the many drivers vying for pole, in an extremely hard-fought qualifying session. Second and behind of only 55 thousandths, George Russell, who however was hindered by Verstappen in Q3: one grid position penalty to the new 4-time world champion and front row which only changes in orderwith the Mercedes driver starting in front of everyone and Verstappen in second place.
Opening the third row is Lando Norris’s McLaren, third in 1’20″772. Nothing to do however for the Ferraris of Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz, who finish in fifth and seventh place respectively, being preceded – as well as by the aforementioned Norris – from Oscar Piastri’s McLaren, fourth and 23 thousandths ahead of the Monegasque, with Lewis Hamilton’s Mercedes instead placing itself between the two Ferrari drivers, in sixth position on the grid Fernando Alonso’s Aston Martin, which finished in eighth place, followed by Sergio Perez’s other Red Bull and Kevin Magnussen’s Haas to close the top ten.