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And he’s safe. Norris is 0.211 slower than Piastri, ahead of Verstappen, but it will all come down to Q3 for the title challengers.
Lawson, Albon, Bortoleto, Leclerc and Norris in the drop zone.
New soft tyres for Norris. Got to get into the top 10. Verstappen into the 1.19s.
Just over six minutes left, Norris needs a time. Antonelli up to 8th with his first valid lap. Russell third fastest.
Piastri and Norris now at it. 119.650 for the Australian, Norris done for track limits – no time!
Verstappen fastest, 120.142. He took two warm-up laps before going for it.
Piastri on an out-lap, Norris still lurking.
OK, Q2 is upon us. Verstappen is out early, on new tyres.
If there’s a consolation for the bottom five, it’s that barely a second covered all 20 drivers.
Meanwhile the censors are out for Yuki Tsunoda, as Red Bull’s second man lets fly with the expletives after team radio tells him he has been eliminated.
But at the front, at the very last, George Russell goes quickest ahead of Norris. It’s the first four from the sprint race but in a different order. Russell, Norris, Piastri, Verstappen. Now for Q2.
Hamilton into the elimination zone! Out he goes with Tsunoda, Ocon, Stroll and Colapinto.
It’s going to be close for Lewis Hamilton. Will he make it out of Q1? In 13th with time running out. Leclerc is fifth.
Lawson, Tsunoda, Ocon, Stroll and Colapinto in the drop zone.
Norris now finds his feet, four-tenths quicker than Verstappen – and Piastri cannot top him. Only 0.077 between the two McLarens at present.
Verstappen goes fastest, Tsunoda 10th fastest.
Norris down in 15th with half the session gone. He’s had a tyre change.
Piastri goes fastest for now. Norris has plenty of time but his colleague is reinvigorated.
Alex Albon meanwhile in trouble for a pit lane violation. Will have to see the stewards afterwards.
Antonelli has breached the track limits at 10 again, having his first time deleted.
Norris fifth fastest initially but being bumped down.
Here we go. Verstappen has his first lap, 0.004 behind Alonso, who is quickest.
The also-rans are running, the big names are lurking.
Q1 incoming. The queue has formed, with a dramatically changed Ferrari, after their bleak weekend so far.
Martin Brundle is talking about Piastri being on a “confidence perch”. Can Lando Norris channel his inner Alex Ferguson to knock him off it?
It’s almost 9pm in Qatar. Sunday’s race will be over by now. I’ve often been puzzled when the timings don’t overlap, especially running into the evening when temperatures will be dropping.
Qualifying will be hugely important – it’s very hard to overtake here. But there are a few traps to avoid, even if you are out in front. We saw Antonelli and Tsunoda done for breaching track limits in the sprint race, and Hadjar missed out on Q3 for a similar fault. Then there’s the gravel, which will cause tyre degradation problems. Everyone will have to changes tyres twice on Sunday.
How would you characterise Max Verstappen? McLaren’s CEO, Zak Brown, sees him as something out of Halloween, the way that the Red Bull driver has come back into the championship race after being left for dead. The American has told Sky: “He is like that guy in the horror movie who you think is down and then suddenly it’s: ‘Where did he come from?!’ He is an immense talent, as good as anyone we have ever seen. I think we have to ignore him, we can’t control what he does.”
Meanwhile Lewis Hamilton has been reflecting on another bad afternoon, Reuters reports. He started the sprint from the pit lane and finished 17th, while his teammate Charles Leclerc came 13th after dropping back from ninth.
“I don’t know how we made the car worse,” Ferrari’s British driver said. “We started from the pit lane because we wanted to explore and make some changes. They had some things they found on the simulator last night. So we implemented those changes and the car was really in the wrong direction and very, very difficult for whatever reason, clearly for both of us.”
Norris says Verstappen ‘doesn’t have much of a clue’ about McLaren
Right, half an hour to go till qualifying. Things have got a little spicy since the sprint race, with Lando Norris hitting back at Max Verstappen’s dig in the week that he would have won the world championship easily for McLaren, the Briton claiming there are things his rival “doesn’t have much of a clue about”, the PA reports:
Responding to Verstappen’s jibe, Norris said: “Max is very welcome to say everything he wants. He has kind of earned the right because he has won four world championships. I have a lot of respect, and he has achieved an incredible amount – more than anyone could dream of achieving – and that gives anyone credit.
“He generally has a good clue about a lot of things, but there is also a lot of things he doesn’t have much of a clue about.
“But it is also Red Bull’s way of going about things, an aggressive nature and just talking nonsense a lot of the time. It depends if you want to listen to it and talk about it he like he would love you to do, or do what we do as a team which is keeping our heads down and stay focused.
“Maybe he would have done [won the title easily] but he hasn’t done so far.”
Qualifying preamble
Scores on the doors from the sprint race were that Oscar Piastri took two points out of Lando Norris’s lead, reducing it to 22, while the Briton added one to his advantage over Max Verstappen, taking it to 25. Of greater significance, perhaps, is that the McLaren duo and George Russell, in second, started where they finished. Which, apart from meaning this preamble has referenced The Generation Game and Mastermind, is indicative of how hard it is to overtake at the Lusail Circuit.
Verstappen advanced from sixth to fourth but, given one of the two places was that of his Red Bull teammate Yuki Tsunoda, only his getting past Fernando Alonso really counts as an overtake, and that was on lap one. Charles Leclerc started in ninth but lost four places on lap one – and finished 13th. There is no getting away from how important qualifying is here, followed by that run down to the first corner.
Piastri will be lifted by the return to the podium after seven races and the top step after eight. He also seemed to have the best setup of the two McLarens. But Norris made one mistake in sprint qualifying and if he can avoid that then pole is within his compass. Verstappen looked happier with his sprint run than with the qualifying for it but it’s very much advantage McLaren.
The dream scenario for Norris? That he takes pole and Russell goes second quickest, introducing a buffer between him and his title rivals in the run down to the first corner for Sunday’s race.
Q1 gets under way at 6pm GMT, 9pm Doha time. Join me for the buildup from 5.30pm.
Piastri wins sprint race and Norris holds off Verstappen to boost McLaren
Giles Richards
Oscar Piastri won the Qatar Grand Prix sprint with a dominant drive for McLaren. With the championship leader, Lando Norris, in third, it was a vital boost to the Australian’s title ambitions. The third contender, Max Verstappen, took fourth place, dropping a point to Norris. Mercedes’s George Russell was second. Yuki Tsunoda was fifth for Red Bull despite a track limits penalty, after Mercedes’ Kimi Antonelli also picked one up and had to settle for sixth.
With victory in the 19-lap dash, Piastri has narrowed the gap to Norris by two points to 22, while Verstappen has fallen one point further behind to 25 in arrears.
Norris’s task remains the same if he is to seal the championship on Sunday. He must be 26 points ahead of both Piastri and Verstappen if he does not win the race or 25 ahead if he does take victory. If either of his rivals are closer than that margin then the title will be decided at the final round of the season in Abu Dhabi. A win in the race would be enough for Norris regardless of any other results.
It is the Australian’s third sprint win, with Piastri having taken all three at the Qatar GP. The victory was the very least he required to keep his title hopes alive and to reassert himself after a period of underperforming, having led with such calm assurance for so long this season. It is the first race he has won since the Dutch GP in August, albeit the short-form version.
The start was crucial and Piastri held his lead from the off with Norris just hanging on to third as he was pressured hard by Yuki Tsunoda in the Red Bull. He held on and Tsunoda, as expected, swiftly then ceded fourth to his teammate Verstappen.
Piastri had good pace from the off out front as Verstappen threw himself at Norris, closing hard by lap three. Norris held him off, however, and with the initial charge on fresh tyres over, he put a solid two seconds on the Dutchman. It was the last real moment of any drama at the sharp end.
The front four then remained circulating line astern, managing the gaps to one another and their rubber, so often a feature of the more pedestrian sprint race, especially on a circuit where overtaking is difficult.
Piastri held his lead to the flag, without putting a foot wrong across the race. He must now do so again on Sunday to maintain the pressure on his teammate.
Lewis Hamilton toiled for little reward after starting from 18th in the pit lane after a poor qualifying and finished in 17th place for Ferrari.
Qualifying for Sunday’s race will take place later on Saturday evening and Pirelli has limited the use of tyres for the GP to a 25-lap stint, making the 57-lap contest a mandatory two-stop as a precaution against punctures.
However, after Friday’s running the tyre manufacturer also expressed concern that gravel drawn on to the track by cars running wide was causing some deep cuts in the tyres. It may require the use of a safety car or red flags to clean the track of gravel debris.
Giles Richards’ report from Qatar will be here shortly, and I’ll be back from 5.30 for qualifying.
Novak Djokovic on trophy duty – and that’s my lot for now.
“Our base performance around here is very good, so it’s more about tuning,” says Piastri.
“George is doing a very good job but the team has given us a very good car,” Norris adds.
“I never saw him,” Norris says of Verstappen. He predicts a tough race – not easy to pass. Which just adds to the pressure for qualifying.
“Those last two laps was a real struggle,” says Russell.
“It’s been a good weekend so far, everything went smoothly,” says Piastri.
Verstappen may be happy but McLaren are delighted. Both drivers held their own and that’s all they need.
Verstappen looks quite happy. His car certainly performed better than it did in qualifying.
Ultimately it was more about laps than drama. What will everyone have learned for qualifying?
Antonelli does seem to have got a five-second penalty. Which negates Tsunoda’s.
Russell says his front left would have been in trouble had there been another couple of laps.
Piastri’s first podium since Monza in early September – and, as mentioned at the start, a hat-trick of sprint wins in Qatar.
Which means Norris leads Piastri by 22 points and Verstappen by 25, I think.
1. Piastri. 2. Russell. 3. Norris. 4. Verstappen.
Piastri cruising home. Norris warned by the team not to risk track limits.
Gravel is looking as though it could be a big factor tomorrow, putting drivers at risk of slow punctures. Not sure I would fancy getting a broom out during the race.
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