Norris dazzles under Qatar lights to put Ferrari in the shade

Lando Norris produced an outstanding sprint qualifying performance in Qatar to land top spot on the grid.

Six days after yielding the F1 drivers’ title to Max Verstappen in Las Vegas, McLaren’s Norris was perfect in every session around the Lusail International Circuit, delivering the fastest time, culminating in his pacesetting 1:21.012s, finishing just 0.063s ahead of Mercedes’ George Russell.

Russell was a fly in the ointment for McLaren as a front-row lock-out was on the cards until the Brition managed to split the Woking team’s duo at the death.

In the fight for this year’s constructors’ title, with McLaren 24 points ahead of Ferrari, it was a crucial result to start the weekend, with Carlos Sainz and Charles Leclerc lining up fourth and fifth for the Scuderia.

Verstappen starts sixth ahead of Lewis Hamilton in his Mercedes, with the seven-time F1 champion ahead of Alpine’s Pierre Gasly, Nico Hulkenberg in his Haas and RB’s Liam Lawson, whose best lap was deleted, leaving the New Zealander 10th.

Lawson would have edged ahead of Hulkenberg but for that lap.

With four points separating Haas, Alpine and RB in the battle for sixth in the constructors’, the battle between those three promises to be a fascinating one on Saturday.

Norris just sublime

With low tyre degradation and high track evolution, it was a case of staying out on the medium Pirelli rubber and performing cool-down laps between the fliers, and being in the right place at the right time at the end of the session of SQ1.

The quickest time in that session changed hands on several occasions, and although Norris was the first to take the chequered flag, he was head and shoulders faster than any of his rivals, finishing a staggering half a second ahead of Sainz with a lap of 1:21.356s.

By the end of the 12 minutes, Sergio Perez suffered yet another embarrassment in being knocked out, finishing seven-tenths of a second behind Red Bull team-mate Verstappen.

The Mexican driver will start 16th ahead of RB’s Yuki Tsunoda, the Japanese under consideration to replace Perez at Red Bull next year, with Alpine’s Esteban Ocon, Zhou Guanyu in his Stake, and Williams’ Franco Colapinto also eliminated.

The second session was a repeat of the first in terms of the drivers staying on track with their medium tyres.

At one stage, Piastri was under pressure as his opening flier was deleted for exceeding track limits but the Australian redeemed himself when it mattered to secure his place in the top-10 shoot-out with the third-quickest time.

It was Norris who again topped the timesheet with a 1:23.231s, a quarter of a second ahead of Russell.

Eliminated were Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, courtesy of a late lap from Gasly, leaving the two-time F1 champion 0.040s down on 10th-quickest Lawson.

Williams’ Alex Albon will start 12th ahead of an improved Valtteri Bottas in his Stake, the second Aston Martin of Lance Stroll, and with Kevin Magnussen lining up 15th in his Haas.

The switch to soft tyres in SQ3 did not disrupt Norris’ flow as the Briton deservedly grabbed pole.