Oscar Piastri topped championship-leading teammate Lando Norris to top spot in the sole practice session at the Qatar Grand Prix, while title challenger Max Verstappen had a litany of car complaints en route to sixth.
The McLaren drivers were slow to find their stride in the first half of the session, when the entire field accumulated laps on the hard tire on the dusty Lusail track, but on the softs both Piastri and Norris immediately set the pace.
Norris drew first blood, with Piastri almost 0.4s slower, but the Australian hit back with his second lap to set the benchmark at 1m20.924s, beating his teammate by 0.058s.
Norris couldn’t improve in any of the three sectors with his second lap and a mistake at the final corner, sending him off the track and through the gravel, locked him into second place in an eventually comfortable display of performance for McLaren.
Fernando Alonso, in a competitive Aston Martin in high-downforce trim, looked quick throughout the session and ended third 0.386s off the pace. Alonso headed a group of three midfield drivers separated by less than 0.2s. Carlos Sainz followed for Williams 0.094s further back, while Isack Hadjar was another 0.099s adrift in fifth.
Verstappen, winner in Las Vegas and 24 points behind Norris in the standings, started the session strongly, but the hour soon became mired with a string of handling and performance issues that left him 0.58s off the pace. The Dutchman reported his left-front hard tire was giving up after just four laps on track, and shortly afterwards he radioed that his steering felt “really weird suddenly” as he ran wide off the circuit in gusty conditions.
Later, as the soft runs approached, Verstappen complained that his “shifts have gone to s***, feels really slow and harsh.” His suspension setup then raised the world champion’s ire.
“It feels like the damping is really bad on the car,” he said. “Every time I’m off throttle the car is jumping a lot.”
Finally, Verstappen noted that power delivery was clipping out of the right Turn 6, rounding out a difficult session for the Red Bull driver.
Alex Albon was seventh and 0.685s off the pace, ahead of Charles Leclerc in eighth and 0.744s down despite a power steering problem that left him unable to gauge the Ferrari’s balance.
Lance Stroll was ninth in the second Aston Martin, while Kimi Antonelli led the way for Mercedes in 10th, 0.774s off the pace, the silver and black cars struggling for pace on the soft tire despite Antonelli having set the fastest time on hards in the first half of the session.
Nico Hulkenberg ended the hour 11th ahead of Lewis Hamilton, Yuki Tsunoda, George Russell, Oliver Bearman and Gabriel Bortoleto.
Esteban Ocon finished 17th ahead of Pierre Gasly, Liam Lawson and Franco Colapinto, who couldn’t string together a competitive lap on softs and ended 2.6s off the pace in last.
RESULTS
