Under the floodlights of the Losail Circuit, the drivers stunned in an epic battle for Pole in F1 Sprint Qualifying at the 2025 Qatar GP. The tension was high between RedBull and McLaren, who both have drivers In the title fight.
SQ1
Verstappen led the pack out of the pit lane for the start of SQ1. Mediums being the tyre of choice for most drivers at the start of the session.
Mercedes were late out, with both drivers being last to set a time.
Hadjar asked the team over the radio to check his floor after taking too much curb in the end stages of SQ1.
RedBull and McLaren have a tense weekend ahead. The opportunity for extra points this weekend will please them both. There were a couple of potential incidents of impeding by Verstappen on Norris, however these were both deemed no investigation needed.
SQ1 was disappointing for Hamilton, who failed to set a time fast enough to get him into SQ2.
SQ2:
SQ2 was largely uneventful, However, Verstappen was on the radio complaining about the car “bouncing like crazy”.
Hadjar had his lap time deleted, therefore eliminating him I’m SQ2.
SQ3:
Verstappen went wide after a huge moment in SQ3, swearing on the radio and again complaining about his car bouncing. Sprint Qualifying has been a big struggle, his car just not agreeing with him at all.
Piastri took pole, claiming “Its only the sprint, but I’ll take what I can get.” He will be happy to have the upper hand against his title rival Verstappen.
Yuki Tsunoda managed to out qualify his teammate Verstappen, a move nobody saw coming after his struggles for the majority of this year.
Norris managed to stay in P3, even after his lap time was deleted for track limits. His first lap had made enough time to keep him there.
Overall, Sprint Qualifying was quite a quiet and uneventful session, are they leaving the tension until tomorrow’s sprint race? See the timings for the rest of the weekend here.