Verstappen denied pole after one-place penalty for impeding Russell, who’s promoted to P1 for GP at Losail; Norris and Piastri P3 & P4 for McLaren ahead of both Ferraris

After being skunked in earlier Sprint qualifying and the Sprint race, where he only placed P8 for a measly one point, newly crowned four-time Formula 1 Champion Max Verstappen found another level late in Saturday Qualifying for Sunday’s Qatar Grand Prix, the penultimate race of the season. On the super high-G, low grip Loasail International Circuit, Verstappen set the fastest lap by some .055-seconds at the tail end of Q3, surging ahead of the highly competitive Mercedes of George Russell. But the stewards later determined that the Red Bull ace had dawdled a bit too much in front of Russell earlier in the lap, thereby affecting the Briton’s preparation efforts for a final push. Verstappen was demoted one position for the infraction and that promoted Russell to P1 for tomorrow’s race. McLaren continued their stout efforts to hold off Ferrari and Red Bull for the Constructors’ crown, with Lando Norris qualifying P3 and Oscar Piastri P4 after that duo had already won the Sprint race, where Norris allowed Piastri to pass him for the win under team orders in the short 19-lap race. Ferrari saw their cars split on the grid, with Charles Leclerc only good enough for P5 and Carlos Sainz then bettered by the second Mercedes of Lewis Hamilton, P6 to P7.

Top 10 qualifiers for the Qatar Grand Prix:

*Verstappen penalized one place for impeding Russell in Q3

Complete qualifying results available at Formula1.com.

Revised starting grid is here.

Tomorrow’s race airs live on ESPN2 beginning at 11 am Eastern here in the States. Hope to see you then to find out how it all shakes out!