McLaren’s Oscar Piastri has claimed pole position for the 2025 Qatar Grand Prix.
Piastri earlier won the sprint race from pole and dominated Qualifying aside from Q1 to take pole for the main race in a boost for his title aspirations, although his teammate and championship rival – Lando Norris will start alongside him on the front row.
Q1
Williams’ Carlos Sainz was first on track and set 1m 22.354 as the initial benchmark time but once everyone set a lap time, Piastri sat top with 1m 20.739.
The bottom five meanwhile comprised of; Charles Leclerc, Pierre Gasly, Esteban Ocon, Lewis Hamilton and Franco Colapinto.
Gasly, Leclerc and Hamilton however got out of the drop zone on their second fliers, which saw Norris go quickest with 1m 20.157 and ahead of Piastri by 0.077 seconds.
With two minutes left on the clock, Liam Lawson, Yuki Tsunoda, Ocon, Lance Stroll and Colapinto found themselves at risk of elimination.
Once the checkered flag fell, Stroll and Colapinto filled the back row behind Hamilton who again was eliminated in 18th position like in Sprint Qualifying.
Ocon will line up 17th on the grid behind Tsunoda, whilst Russell topped the segment with 1m 20.074 on his final flier.
Q2
Williams’ Alex Albon was first out on track but it was Sauber’s Nico Hulkenberg who set the initial benchmark time of 1m 20.795, but Piastri sat fastest with 1m 19.650 once everyone set their first lap times.
The bottom five meanwhile comprised of; Leclerc, Hulkenberg, Gabriel Bortoleto, Russell and Norris whose lap time was deleted, after he ran wide at Turn 10.
Norris eventually found himself second fastest as nobody beat Piastri’s lap time.
Hulkenberg headed the Q2 eliminees ahead of Lawson, Oliver Bearman, Bortoleto and Albon, although Bortoleto will start 19th on the grid due to a five-place grid penalty for his first-lap collision with Stroll in Las Vegas.
Q3
Verstappen was first to exit the pit lane ahead of a queue of drivers but it was Norris who proceeded to set 1m 19.495 as the benchmark time, ahead of Piastri by just 0.035s after Verstappen opted for two warm-up laps.
Once everyone set their first Q3 fliers, Norris sat on provisional pole from Piastri, Russell, Verstappen, Isack Hadjar, Andrea Kimi Antonelli, Fernando Alonso, Sainz, Gasly and Leclerc – who had spun at Turn 15 and aborted his lap.
Q3 however was red flagged with five minutes and 27 seconds left due to gravel left on the track at Turn 15 by Leclerc plus some loose plastic wrapping from Sainz’s Williams, and the session resumed four minutes later with nobody hurrying out onto the circuit.
With just under two minutes left, Norris came across Russell who had unexpectedly backed off at the start of his final flying lap and was forced to abort his lap, which meant that he couldn’t get back round in time for another flier.
Piastri consequently capitalised with 1m 19.387 to take pole with a new pole-lap record ahead of Norris, Verstappen, Russell, Antonelli, Hadjar, Sainz, Alonso and Leclerc.
| Position | Driver | Team | Time |
| 1 | Oscar Piastri | McLaren | 1m 19.387 |
| 2 | Lando Norris | McLaren | + 0.108 |
| 3 | Max Verstappen | Red Bull | + 0.264 |
| 4 | George Russell | Mercedes | + 0.275 |
| 5 | Andrea Kimi Antonelli | Mercedes | + 0.459 |
| 6 | Isack Hadjar | Racing Bulls | + 0.727 |
| 7 | Carlos Sainz | Williams | + 0.900 |
| 8 | Fernando Alonso | Aston Martin | + 1.031 |
| 9 | Pierre Gasly | Alpine | + 1.090 |
| 10 | Charles Leclerc | Ferrari | + 1.174 |
| 11 | Nico Hulkenberg | Sauber | 1m 20.353 |
| 12 | Liam Lawson | Racing Bulls | + 0.080 |
| 13 | Oliver Bearman | Haas | + 0.085 |
| 14 | Gabriel Bortoleto | Sauber | + 0.181 |
| 15 | Alex Albon | Williams | + 0.276 |
| 16 | Yuki Tsunoda | Red Bull | 1m 20.761 |
| 17 | Esteban Ocon | Haas | + 0.103 |
| 18 | Lewis Hamilton | Ferrari | + 0.146 |
| 19 | Lance Stroll | Aston Martin | + 0.297 |
| 20 | Franco Colapinto | Alpine | + 0.376 |
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