Norris claims Qatar Sprint pole ahead of Russell

Lando Norris will start from pole alongside George Russell for the Qatar Sprint race after a tight qualifying session in Lusail. In a session during which most drivers set two flying laps on soft tires, Norris had to rely on just one after he spoiled his second attempt with a scrappy first sector. It left him vulnerable to McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri, who started his second tour with a purple first sector but faded over the lap. Russell then emerged as his closest challenger, and from pit lane Norris watched the Mercedes driver set three personal best sectors but fall just 0.063s short. Norris thus scraped through for his second Sprint pole of the year following his P1 start in China. “It’s tough because it’s so quick around here,” he said. “It feels like the quickest circuit of the year — the finals sector feels like you’re just hanging on. Great qualifying today, especially to bounce back from where we were last time out in Vegas, it was a nice thing to do. “It was a decent lap. I made too many mistakes on my second, but we came here to get pole and we did that, so job done for today.” Russell’s front-row start matches his best Sprint qualifying result of the year following his front-row start at Circuit of The Americas. Piastri, last year’s Qatar Sprint pole-getter and winner, will line up third after lapping 0.159s slower than his teammate. Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc were closely matched just over 0.25s off pole, the Ferrari cars fading the longer qualifying continued after topping practice earlier in the day. Max Verstappen will line up sixth ahead of Lewis Hamilton in the second Mercedes. Pierre Gasly lad the three-car gaggle of midfielders inside the top 10, beating Nico Hulkenberg by 0.11s. Liam Lawson qualified 10th, losing a place after having his fastest time deleted for exceeding track limits. Fernando Alonso will start the Sprint 11th ahead of Alex Albon, Valtteri Bottas, Lance Stroll and Kevin Magnussen in the Dane’s Sprint qualifying comeback after missing the Sao Paulo weekend due to illness. Sergio Perez was the first driver eliminated in SQ1, taking 16th place on the grid. It’s the Mexican’s first bottom-five qualification for a Sprint this year, though he’s been knocked out of Q3 twice in the last three grands prix. Perez’s 0.013s margin to 15th is at least partly down to a strange run-in with Leclerc on his final flying lap. The two drivers powered down the front straight side by side both attempting to set a fast lap, with Leclerc attempting to overtake him down the inside of the first turn. Perez was pushed wide before Leclerc relented and abandoned his lap, leaving the Red Bull driver with a first sector 0.115s slower than his personal best. Yuki Tsunoda was a frustrated 17th, unhappy with RB’s run plan, ahead of Esteban Ocon, who isn’t running Alpine’s new front wing for a lack of spares. Zhou Guanyu qualified 19th ahead of Williams rookie Franco Colapinto.