McLaren’s Oscar Piastri has topped the only practice session of Formula 1’s sprint weekend in Qatar, edging out team-mate and title rival Lando Norris in a last-minute flurry of qualifying runs in Doha.
At the floodlit Losail circuit, which hosts the penultimate weekend on the 2025 calendar, Piastri’s second soft-tyre run at the end of the session was enough to overhaul Norris’ previous best effort by half a tenth, with Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso completing the top three.
With the Qatar weekend the final sprint weekend of the 2025 season, teams wasted little time getting up to speed in the only free practice session, all 20 drivers completing the majority of the sole practice session on hard tyres with both high and low fuel loads.
Teams are preparing for a one-off weekend in which Pirelli has mandated a maximum 25-lap tyre stint as a precaution against punctures on the demanding circuit, which locks Sunday’s race into a two-stopper.
Mercedes’ George Russell led the early running from Max Verstappen, who complained about the ride quality of his Red Bull RB21, which he reported was “jumping a lot”.
The Mercedes driver then improved his leading time to a 1m22.165s after 20 minutes, which would stand untouched for the next half hour.
Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing
Photo by: Sam Bagnall / Sutton Images via Getty Images
Drifting wide on the dusty high-downforce Losail circuit, Norris also took a while to get up to speed as he wondered why he was 1.6s behind team-mate and title rival Piastri early on. He then duly found the pace to settle near the top of the standings, yet McLaren still looked slightly adrift on Pirelli’s hard compound.
After more than 45 minutes of hard tyre running, teams bolted on the soft tyres for qualifying simulations, and it appeared as though the McLaren MCL39 came alive on the softer compound.
Pre-event favourite Norris, who will seal his maiden world title if he wins this weekend, took control with a 1m20.982s, three tenths ahead of Piastri’s 1m21.351s.
On his second flyer Norris looked set to go quicker before aborting his attempt. Piastri did go faster and leapfrogged the Briton with a 1m20.924s, just 0.058s faster, a lap which would remain unbeaten.
Aston veteran Alonso was a promising third, four tenths behind Piastri, followed by fellow Spaniard Carlos Sainz in the Williams. Aboard the Racing Bulls car, Isack Hadjar held off Verstappen for fifth, with the second Williams of Alex Albon in seventh.
Charles Leclerc was eighth in a cumbersome looking Ferrari, ahead of Lance Stroll and Andrea Kimi Antonelli, who rounded out the top 10.
Sprint qualifying starts at 5:30pm GMT.
F1 Qatar GP – FP1 results
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– The Autosport.com Team
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