Qualifying Highlights | 2023 Qatar Grand Prix

This is the last effort that Magnussen's going to get. Currently, Plumlasse looking for an improvement. He'll get it, but only to 17th position. So he falls at the first hurdle. Bottas improves his time. He goes up to 11th. We look at Liam Lawson about to cut the beam. Lawson just misses out. He improved his time, but not his position. Hülkenberg and Stroll are still improving. Joe's not on a great lap, but he's currently last. So it looks like Joe's going to go out, and he does go out at the back of the field. Hülkenberg to ninth. So Hülkenberg outqualifies his teammate and takes the head-to-head record 12 times this year. He's been the lead house. Here's Stroll. Is Albin or Sargent or Stroll? Hamilton's only 14th. Hamilton might yet be in trouble if Albin and Stroll both improve here. Albin has never been outqualified by Logan Sargent in his time in Formula 1 as his teammate. Stroll goes over the line. It's only 17th. Four races in a row. He's out in Q1, and it's Russell up to fifth position. Ocon is in seventh place. Does Albin have a lap time good enough? It's Williams or Williams. One of them is going to go through. This would be huge if it was Sargent, but we're on board with Albin. One corner to go, and he's improving so far. The only teammate yet to beat the other driver across the garage is Logan Sargent. Can Albin get there at the last? He can! And Alex Albin digs deep to continue the whitewash run. He's 15th. Sargent is out. Then it's Stroll, Lawson, Magnussen and Joe who go out in the first part of qualifying. It's not the Grand Prix, but Charles Leclerc is diving to the inside of Turn 1 like it was. Amazing pitches, but in the end, compromising both of them. Yeah, Leclerc destroyed that one lap. That's OK. Yeah, he overtook, didn't he? It was a bit of a joke. He started right behind you. So a bit of misunderstanding, which I'm sure they will discuss privately afterwards. Out of the car. Nowhere to hide in Formula 1. And tough moments for the Canadian driver who's struggling to find the answers at the moment. This is Max Verstappen looking for a clean path ahead. Not finding it. Wonder what he made of it. I reckon we'll get radio in a couple of moments. Time to tell us. What is he doing, man? He's defending. Do you see that? Almost crashed into him. And once again, the Ferrari is getting racy like it's the Grand Prix. OK, we are now seeing Max Verstappen top the times with the fastest 1st and 3rd sectors. Over the line goes Sainz now. Where can the Ferrari drive? But only 9th. Only 9th at the moment. 30 seconds to go. Perez is 10th and he's not on a great lap on his final flyer here. He's going to come out through the final corner anytime soon in the background, if we hope, with the shot. And Checo's got to find something here because he's now shuffled out to 11th. Sainz goes to 10th. Trying to find his way through. And that is an improvement of time only for Sergio Perez who remains in 9th. So Sainz is gone. Sainz is out. Polsitter a few races ago. Race winner a couple of races ago. And he's 11th and he's out. Hulkenberg has had his time deleted as well. He is down to 15th. Sunoden now comes across and he will get to 11th. But he will not make it through as well. So Sainz the big shock to fall at the second hurdle. And we've got improvements out there for plenty of drivers including Gasly who's just gone up to 4th position. Does anyone have a lap who's in the drop zone? We ask the question first of Esteban Ocon. Ocon at risk at the moment. That's a fine 5th place to book his place through into the next part of qualifying. So it's only Albon out there to try and improve. And he is improving slightly through the middle sector. Hamilton is improving as well but he's already safely through in 8th. It's going to be Bottas or Albon I think. Perez. Perez has had his lap time deleted. He's in 13th position. Albon's off the road. But what a shock we're going to get here. Sunoden is 11th but Sainz is 12th. From pole to 12th position in a couple of Grand Prix. And Sergio Perez finds himself out once again in the second part of qualifying. Along with Alex Albon and Nico Hülkenberg. That we always said with track limits so close we were going to get some shocks. And Sainz and Perez absolutely the stories of Q2. Oskar Piastri about to come over the line. He now takes the fastest time by 7 tenths of a second. Max Verstappen fastest in the first sector. Not in the middle sector of the lap though. And he tries to find the fastest time around the circuit. He cuts the beam and he's 7 tenths of a second clear of Oskar Piastri. That first sector he's just done is huge. He's half a second clear of Piastri in the first sector. That's where he's really hooked it up. Middle part was okay. And then again hooked it up in the final part. He's only 3 tenths up on what Norris did before Lando had his lap time deleted. Hamilton half a second shy. But marginally quicker than Russell. McLaren now looking for a lap that's clean. That's within the white lines. It's good enough for 5th place for him. I'm sure for Norris he was over track limits. That's going to be 10th on the grid. From the high angle that we had. That looked like Lando Norris placed all 4 wheels over the white line. The driver who didn't have a time on the board before. We'll hope that that wasn't the case. But it looked for all the world from that angle that it was. He comes over the line and he goes 2nd fastest. But will he keep it with the chequered flag out? Max Verstappen has returned to the pits. Can anyone find a lap to displace him? I suspect the answer is no. And we've got an inter-Mercedes battle as well. It could yet be for the front row. Because Lando Norris will be under review for that moment. Where he appeared to go over the white lines. Russell's going pretty quickly here. Out of the final corner, driving to the line. Russell aiming to get past his teammate. And he does so. 3rd place for Russell. Can Hamilton respond? No, he's bailed out of it. And now Oscar Piastri. Can he pick the pieces up for McLaren? No word from Race Control at the moment about Lando Norris. Can he join his teammate up there? It's another strong qualifying performance for Oscar Piastri. Who puts the McLaren ahead of Lewis Hamilton into 4th place. But guess who? He's already back in the pits. He didn't need a final run. Max Verstappen has taken his 10th pole of the season. Max Verstappen has taken his 30th career pole. And his first run good enough to beat Lando Norris' 2nd. But did Norris keep it within the white lines? It's going to be defining whether it's him or George Russell on the front row for the Qatar Grand Prix. And there's the moment that it is official. Lando Norris' time deleted from the board as we expected. George Russell promoted to 2nd. And Oscar Piastri promoted to 3rd as a result of that. So I think we're just hearing that you've had a track limit infringement. Is that accurate? Did you know that maybe something was under investigation for your track limits as well? I didn't know, but this is fun, isn't it? It sounds like you may have been dropped down to 6th now. Wonderful. It was lovely speaking to you though, Oscar. Thank you. Thank you for coming to speak to us. Thank you. Well done. Mid-interview. Oscar Piastri dropped down from 3rd to 6th. And this is Oscar Piastri again. It's a clear cut. It's Max Verstappen, then George Russell on the front row. Lewis Hamilton is 3rd. Then it's Alonso in 4th. Charles Leclerc is 5th. Piastri goes back to his first run time, which was 6th. Then it is Gasly ahead of Ocon. Bottas is 9th. And Lando Norris didn't get a clean time in the session.