Official F1 Journal Formula 1 Friday Round Up- Qatar

We are back in Qatar for the first time since 2021 where Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton dominated the weekend but times have changed and so has the format this weekend as we run our first Sprint weekend since back in Spa. Last time out in Qatar we saw the top 3 all finish on different strategies and so coming into the weekend the options are wide open for all the teams to make this weekend work for them.  

Practice- Day light/Sunset Very Sandy Track

The one and only practice session of the weekend began with a very sandy track and everyone except the Williams cars Alonso & Piastri taking to the track straight away. For the most part the most of the session was about cleaning and rubbering in the green track while dialing into the the newly laid surface for 2023 with everyone either running the Hard or Medium tyres. 
The sand was a real issue to begin with, as we saw almost every driver out there visit the run off areas around the track including Lando Norris who destroyed a foam sign when he had to take to the run off & soon to be 3 time World Champion Max Verstappen who radioed to the team 'oh my god it's so slippery'  after having a few moments he was caught out, also blaming the sun saying he couldn't see at points on the track.

With 44 minutes to go we saw the Mercedes driver go top with 7 times champion Hamilton heading team mate George Russell until Alonso who seems to really enjoy this Lusail track put his Aston Martin top and we finally saw the Williams take to the track.
As the sun set behind the circuit the track temperatures dropped and the track evolution accelerated rapidly and we started to see the timing boards lit up with purple sectors  but also a lot of mistakes from the whole grid Piastri went top running the Hard tyre until he was beaten by Leclerc on the Medium while Verstappen had a big moment at turn 9 with a big snap of oversteer taking the champion into the run off and leclerc struggled to stay within track limits. 

With 8 minutes to go they Soft tyres went on and the teams started their qualifying simulations ahead of tonight's Qualifying for Sundays Grand Prix 
Hulkenberg went to the top of the times on his first soft tyre run and from there the top spot changed almost every time a car crossed the line until Verstappen set his mighty last lap to top the session with the Ferrari's of Sainz and Leclerc in 2nd & 3rd and an impressive time from Alonso in 4th on the Medium tyre. 

Practice Results

1 VER      2 SAI
3 LEC      4 ALO
5 PER      6 TSU
7 HUL      8 RUS
9 PIA       10 NOR
11 SAR    12 ALB
13 HAM   14 STR
15 OCO   16 GAS
17 BOT    18 ZHO
​19 LAW    20 MAG  

Qualifying- Night Time, Sandy Track 

Q1

It was straight out for the whole grid for this Q1 session, with everyone on the soft tyre except the 2 Mercedes who chose to try and get through on the medium tyre. Immediately we started to see laps being deleted for track limits and lots of reasons for it, sand on the track, strong winds and slow tyre warm up helping the cars onto the generous run off areas. Stroll, Norris & Leclerc had laps deleted while Alonso topped the times and with 9 minutes to go the Mercedes decided the Medium tyre wasn't the way to go and joined the rest of the field on the Softs going 2nd & 3rd on their first flying laps with Russell just pipping Hamilton to 2nd.  

With 5 minutes to go track evolution ramped up and all the cars on track were improving and with Zhou, Albon, lawson, Magnussen & Norris in the drop zone it was all to play for.
Norris saved himself with a mighty lap going top only to be beaten by Max Verstappen and both happy with their times pit while the rest of the field fought it out for the remaining Q2 spots.
Sainz set a great time that was deleted for track limits dropping him out of the progressing group with only 1 lap left to get through, Alonso's final lap was blocked by Charles Le clerc but the Spaniard still managed 3rd and Mercedes cut it very fine with Hamilton who finished 13th but did one less run on his soft tyres than Russell to gain an advantage in the next rounds.
​ 

Sargeant narrowly missed out on Q2 and was the closest he has been so far this year to beating his team mate Qualifying and was a positive session for the rookie Williams Driver. 
Lance Stroll was not happy at all with his performance and when he got out of the car in the garage was clearly very angry when approached by his personal trainer and when he thought he was out of sight of the cameras aggressively shoved the long time trainer in what can only be described as an unacceptable display of frustration. 
It was also announced the Hamilton, Tsuonda, Lawsonn & Piastri were under investigation for going over the maximum out lap time, all would later be cleared of the offence. 

Q1 Result 

1 VER     2 NOR 
3 ALO     4 PIA
5 RUS     6 LEC
7 GAS     8 OCO
9 SAI      10 HUL
11 PER   12 BOT
13 TSU   14 HAM
15 ALB    16 SAR
17 STR    18 LAW
19 MAG   20 ZHO

Q2 

Q2 everyone was eager to get out and it was Fernando Alonso that lead the grid onto the track and again as soon as we saw times hit the board we started to see them get deleted with Ocon being the first to have his time taken away. The top spot swapped pretty regularly with Leclerc going top followed by Gasly who beat his time, Piastri went 2nd fastest until Max Verstappen topped the times by over 0.400 of a second, followed up but the Mercedes of Russell and Hamilton going 2nd and 3rd fastest after their first runs. 

With 5 minutes on the clock the bottom 5 was Piastri, Hulkenberg, Sainz, Bottas & Norris with both Mclaren's needing to set times after Norris had his first time deleted.
When final runs began both Mclarens found their form and Piastri went fastest but was quickly beaten by team mate Norris who went top of the times. As the Mclaren's seccured their places in Q3 a strange incident between Sainz and Vertsappen were the Ferrari man was aggressively blocking the Redbull driver and was later given a warning for erratic driving after the session. Things only got worse for Sainz when his last run was only good enough for 9th and was subsequently beaten by Bottas, Ocon, Gasly, Russell and Hamilton who set the fastest time of the session, the Spaniard was left in 12th at the end of the session

The only man to have a worse Q2 than Sainz was Sergio Perez who had his fastest time deleted as he completed his last run which wasn't good enough to get him through and he lines up behind Sainz in 13th.
The session ended with Lewis Hamilton fastest, Max Verstappen 2nd & Lando Norris 3rd and both Alpines making it through to Q3. 

Q2 Result 

1 HAM     2 VER
3 NOR     4 PIA
5 RUS     6 GAS
7 OCO    8 LEC
9 ALO    10 BOT
11 TSU   12 SAI
13 PER   14 ALB
​15 HUL

Q3

Q3 the urgency of the previous 2 Qualifying rounds was not repeated and after the Redbull of Max Verstappen went out the cars took their time waitin gin the pitlane to give themselves a gap to the car in front. Max Verstappen chose to do a double out lap to make himself the last man to set  lap. Charles Leclerc aborted his first run after breaching track limits because of strong winds. Norris set a great lap over 1.1 seconds faster than Alonso in 2nd but that lap was deleted leaving the Mclaren man with no time after the first round of laps. Piastri went top of the times only to be beaten by Max Vertappen who went 0.762 faster than Piastri who was then beaten by the 2 Mercedes drivers who went 2nd & 3rd but were still 0.527 behind the Redbull. 

3 minutes to go and the cars started to leave the pits for the fastest runs of the day, with Gasly the last man on track to go for pole. But it was Max's first run that would prove to be the fastest giving the almost 3 times World Champion Pole at Qatar, Norris set a brilliant lap fast enough for 2nd but before he had even finished it he knew he had breached track limits and would ultimately lose the time dropping him to 10th and promoting Russell to 3rd and his Mclaren team mate to 3rd but while doing the post Qualifying interviews Piastri was told that his time had also been deleted and he would now be starting 6th and Lewis Hamilton was promoted to 3rd for Sundays Race. 

Q3 Result

1 VER     2 RUS 
3 HAM    4 ALO
5 LEC     6 PIA
7 GAS    8 OCO
9 BOT    10 NOR

It was a chaotic Qualifying with all the track limits infringements, Sainz and Perez have it all to do on Sunday but can they do better in today's Sprint shootout and Sprint race? and let's  see if the Mclaren's can show their speed inside the lines and challenge the Redbull of Verstappen for Sprint Pole.

Joanna Blackmore 
​Writer @f1journal.co.uk