Norris on Qatar sprint pole in F1 title boost for McLaren

McLaren ended sprint qualifying for the Qatar Grand Prix with an emphatic advantage over Formula 1 constructors' championship title rival Ferrari as Lando Norris took pole position, though the team was denied a 1-2 by a late effort from George Russell.

Charles Leclerc's pace in Friday's sole practice session had raised hopes of a closer fight between Ferrari and McLaren at a track where the SF-24 was expected to struggle relative to the MCL38 - but those pre-weekend predictions ultimately rang true in sprint qualifying where Norris appeared a cut above the rest.

Norris's supremacy

The McLaren driver was fastest in all three parts of sprint qualifying, taking pole with a best time of 1m21.012s on his first effort in SQ3 and even pitting without attempting a second push lap before the end of the session.

His pace was such that even replicating his SQ2 best would've beaten the Ferraris' best times across the three sessions.

McLaren has a 24-point advantage over Ferrari in the constructors' standings and as such is unlikely to wrap up the title over the Qatar GP weekend, but Norris's pole - coupled with third on the grid for Oscar Piastri - gives it a great chance to bolster its lead in the sprint race on Saturday in pursuit of a first constructors' championship since 1998.

Russell splits the McLarens

McLaren had been on course for a 1-2 early on in SQ3 and things looked better still when Piastri set the fastest time of all in the first sector on his final run.

But he then failed to improve in either sector two or three and subsequently had his time deleted for exceeding track limits at Turn 10, though it proved to be slower than his initial best in any case.

All that, though, opened the door for Russell, who'd been second-fastest to Norris in SQ2 as well, to nab a spot on the front row for the sprint race - the Mercedes driver ultimately lapping just 0.063s shy of pole.

Carlos Sainz was the faster of the two Ferraris and joined Piastri on the second row, with Charles Leclerc - who complained of "a lot of understeer" aboard his SF-24 in SQ3 - fifth and three tenths off Norris's time.

World champion Max Verstappen was sixth for Red Bull ahead of Russell's Mercedes team-mate Lewis Hamilton.

An intense battle for sixth overall

Just four points separates Haas, Alpine and RB for sixth place overall in the constructors' championship and all three teams got one car through to the final part of qualifying.

Haas had enjoyed the advantage in (the slightly less representative) SQ1 and SQ2, but Alpine will start the sprint in position to add a point to its tally as Pierre Gasly set the eighth-fastest time.

Nico Hulkenberg had gone as high as seventh with his final effort in SQ3, but he ran slightly out of sequence with the rest of the field and was beaten to eighth by Gasly by 0.110s.

Liam Lawson did get his RB between the two of them briefly, but had his best time deleted for a track limits infringement at Turn 6 and will start 10th instead.

Lawson had boldly declared his final SQ2 effort "a good lap", but even he was caught off guard when he was told it had got him through to the final part of qualifying. "Oh wow! No way," he exclaimed.

Aston's missed chance?

It's hardly been a surprise to see neither Aston Martin make the final part of sprint or regular qualifying lately, so a double SQ2 exit appeared in keeping with that.

But both Fernando Alonso and Lance Stroll had flirted with a place in the final part of qualifying and Alonso's 11th place was a relatively competitive result - though a small moment on the exit of the Turn 10 left-hander might've been the difference between an SQ3 berth and his 11th place.

Alex Albon felt his Williams FW46 was "so different on the second push" and as a result found it "quite hard to just nail" his SQ2 lap.

He exited in 12th ahead of Valtteri Bottas, whose ninth-fastest time in SQ1 teased a SQ3 appearance for a Sauber team yet to score a point in 2024. Bottas ultimately ended up a tenth and a half off progressing.

But he was ahead of Stroll, who pitted before the end of the session, and the second Haas of Kevin Magnussen, who had his first lap deleted for exceeding track limits.

Perez's latest blunder

Sergio Perez's largely miserable run of form continued as he was eliminated in SQ1.

A poor first sector on his final lap ultimately cost him and he was quickly shuffled down the order.

He had been on the right side of the cutoff until Albon's final lap in SQ1, the Williams driver knocking Perez out by 0.013s.

Despite Perez's underwhelming second half of the season, this marked his first SQ1 elimination of 2024.

The Red Bull driver was joined in the bottom five by Yuki Tsunoda, who annoyedly queried his RB team about why it was "rushing" its run plan, as well as Esteban Ocon, Zhou Guanyu and Franco Colapinto.

Williams driver Colapinto was almost half a second adrift of Zhou at the bottom of the order.