The Dutchman needs to be sixth this Saturday to be champion
Carlos Sainz will start fifth and Fernando Alonso, ninth
MADRID, 7 Oct. (EUROPA PRESS) –
The Australian driver Oscar Piastri (McLaren) has signed the pole this Saturday for the sprint race of the Qatar Grand Prix, the eighteenth round of the Formula 1 World Championship, in which the Dutchman Max Verstappen (Red Bull) will try to become champion. mathematics from third position, while the Spaniards Carlos Sainz (Ferrari) and Fernando Alonso (Aston Martin) will start fifth and ninth, respectively.
The two ‘papaya’ cars, those of Piastri and the British Lando Norris, will occupy the first row of the grid this Saturday, in the short race in Losail, just ahead of a ‘Mad Max’ for which it will be enough to be sixth to be world champion for the third time in his career (2021 and 2022).
Next to the Dutchman the British George Russell (Mercedes) will start, while Sainz will start fifth, precisely the position in which Alonso finished the Sprint Shootout, who saw his best lap of SQ3 annulled for exceeding the limits of the track; With the cancellation, he fell to ninth starting place.
The day began busy at the Losail International Circuit after tire problems were detected, which forced the day’s schedule to be modified; The separation between the sidewall and the compound due to excessive use on the curbs led to the track limits being reviewed in turns 12 and 13 and 10 minutes of practice being introduced before the Sprint Shootout.
Wind problems hampered both Ferraris at the beginning of the session, with Monegasque Charles Leclerc narrowly avoiding elimination. The track was evolving, but Verstappen, after a spectacular exit in the escape, had no problem rising to the top of the time table.
The McLaren of the British Lando Norris took over as the championship leader with the arrival of SQ2, in which he was the only one capable of going below 1:25 (1:24.947), 80 thousandths better than his compatriot George Russell (Mercedes) and with the Red Bulls momentarily in the second row. The other driver of the ‘silver arrows’, Lewis Hamilton, was eliminated from the fight for pole.
In the final round, Verstappen set a lap of 1:24.5 that the stewards invalidated for exceeding the track limits in turn 5, a fact that allowed Norris to reach the final stages at the top (1:24.536) ahead of his garage partner, the Australian Oscar Piastri. However, the ocean racer pushed to improve Norris’s time and achieve pole position.