Max Verstappen snatched pole position for the 2024 Qatar Grand Prix.
After a difficult sprint race in which he only finished eighth, Verstappen recovered to top Q2 and Q3 of which the latter segment saw him snatch pole by 0.055 seconds from Mercedes’ George Russell.
Russell however was handed pole position with Verstappen penalised one position after he impeded the Brit on a slowdown lap.
McLaren locked out the second row with Lando Norris in third and Oscar Piastri fourth.
Q1
Russell was first out on track but it was Sauber’s Valtteri Bottas who set the initial pace on 1m 22.758, yet Russell led the order with 1m 21.519 and 0.059 seconds once everyone set a lap time.
Haas’ Nico Hulkenberg and Kevin Magnussen meanwhile headed the bottom five in 16th and 17th respectively, ahead of Guanyu Zhou, Franco Colapinto and Esteban Ocon.
As the checkered flag fell, Ocon and Colapinto failed to improve and qualified slowest behind Hulkenberg – who could only manage 18th with just Liam Lawson and Alex Albon ahead of him.
Russell topped Q1 with 1m 21.241 from Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc and Carlos Sainz.
Q2
Russell was first out on track and set 1m 21.161 as the immediate benchmark which Verstappen quickly lowered by 0.076s to 1m 21.085.
Once almost everyone set a lap time, the bottom five comprised of; Bottas, Zhou, Yuki Tsunoda, Lance Stroll and Fernando Alonso – who was the only driver to see his lap time deleted after he exceeded track limits on his flying lap.
With five minutes left, Russell went quickest by 0.001s from Verstappen’s initial lap time, only for the Dutchman to post 1m 21.049 to go quickest again a minute later but Norris displaced him with 1m 20.983 and 0.066s quicker.
At the checkered flag, Gasly missed out on Q3 to Perez by 0.012s and will line up 11th ahead of Bottas, Zhou, Tsunoda and Stroll.
Verstappen on his final lap posted 1m 20.687 to finish Q2 on top from Norris.
Q3
Like in Q1 and Q2, Russell was first on track but he opted for two warm-up laps which led Magnussen to post 1m 21.500 as the benchmark time on used soft tyres.
Leclerc however posted 1m 20.885 to go top from Sainz moments later whilst Alonso’s lap time was deleted.
Once everyone attempted a lap, Russell headed the order with 1m 20.575 ahead of; Verstappen, Leclerc, Hamilton, Sainz, Piastri, Magnussen, Perez, Norris and Alonso, with Norris having aborted his initial run.
Once the checkered flag fell, Verstappen denied Russell a fifth F1 pole with 1m 20.520 which was 0.050s quicker than the Brit, as Norris and Piastri locked out the second row for McLaren.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | 1m 20.520 |
| 2 | George Russell | Mercedes | + 0.055 |
| 3 | Lando Norris | McLaren | + 0.252 |
| 4 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | + 0.309 |
| 5 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | + 0.332 |
| 6 | Lewis Hamilton | Mercedes | + 0.491 |
| 7 | Carlos Sainz | Ferrari | + 0.521 |
| 8 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | + 0.731 |
| 9 | Sergio Perez | Red Bull | + 0.905 |
| 10 | Kevin Magnussen | Haas | + 0.980 |
| 11 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | 1m 21.437 |
| 12 | Guanyu Zhou | Sauber | + 0.064 |
| 13 | Valtteri Bottas | Sauber | + 0.294 |
| 14 | Yuki Tsunoda | RB | + 0.334 |
| 15 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | + 0.474 |
| 16 | Alex Albon | Williams | 1m 22.390 |
| 17 | Liam Lawson | RB | + 0.021 |
| 18 | Nico Hulkenberg | Haas | + 0.052 |
| 19 | Franco Colapinto | Williams | + 0.204 |
| 20 | Esteban Ocon | Alpine | + 0.324 |
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