McLaren’s Oscar Piastri clocked the quickest time during the sole practice session for Formula 1’s Qatar Grand Prix.
Qatar’s Lusail International Circuit will play host to F1 Sprint for the third successive season, leaving drivers with just Friday afternoon’s one-hour session as the sole non-competitive action of the weekend.
Drivers stuck to Hard tyres for the majority of the session, on account of the mandatory minimum two-stop strategy due to Pirelli’s 25-lap stint limit, meaning there is a greater need to preserve Softs and Mediums.
Soft tyres were only used for the final 10-15 minutes of action, prompting a late flurry of fast lap times, with Piastri ending up atop the pile.
Piastri’s time of 1:20.924s, which came on his second push lap, left him just 0.058s clear of McLaren team-mate Lando Norris, who posted his best effort on his first flying lap on the set of tyres.
Piastri followed up that lap with an effort just 0.005s slower – meaning he set two laps quick enough for top spot.
Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso was a surprise third-best, with Carlos Sainz setting the fastest middle sector on his way to fourth overall for Williams.
Isack Hadjar classified fifth for Racing Bulls, with Max Verstappen sixth overall for Red Bull.
Verstappen complained of several issues during the session, including shift problems, clipping out of Turn 6 being “a disaster” and “off-throttle jumping,” on the Hard tyres.
Alex Albon reinforced Williams’ encouraging start by taking seventh, ahead of Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc, with Lance Stroll ninth for Aston Martin.
Kimi Antonelli rounded out the top 10 for Mercedes while team-mate George Russell, who was fastest on the Hard tyre stint of the session, went wide on his Soft lap and dropped to 13th place.
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