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FP1: Piastri pips Norris to top spot in sole Qatar Grand Prix practice session

The McLaren pair struggled on the hard tyres for the majority of FP1 in Qatar but would go on to take the top two spots on the timesheets.

54 minutes ago

Oscar Piastri set the pace late on in the only practice session for the Qatar Grand Prix, beating his team mate Lando Norris and Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso to the top spot.

The Sprint is making its final appearance of the season in Qatar, giving the drivers just one hour of practice to hone their performance and find the best set-up ahead of a crucial Sprint Qualifying under the lights.

With the sun setting at the Lusail International Circuit, a queue of cars – all on the hard compound tyres – were ready to go at 1630 local time for the first on-track action of the weekend.

George Russell and Max Verstappen both found themselves momentarily at the top of the timesheets in the opening 10 minutes, but Kick Sauber veteran Nico Hulkenberg set multiple purple sectors to easily displace the frontrunners.

Practice 1 results

FORMULA 1 QATAR AIRWAYS QATAR GRAND PRIX 2025

Pos.	Driver	Time
1	Oscar Piastri	1:20.924
2	Lando Norris	+0.058s
3	Fernando Alonso	+0.386s
4	Carlos Sainz	+0.480s
5	Isack Hadjar	+0.579s

View all standings

The Dutchman, who finds himself just 24 points behind Standings leader Norris, then charged eight tenths clear with a time of 1m 23.343s before reporting early issues with his front left tyre.

Verstappen’s struggles didn’t end there as he claimed he had trouble with his steering, with Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc echoing the complaint while down in P15. He improved to sixth, knocking the Red Bull into P7 as a flying Kimi Antonelli set the fastest time of the session.

The majority of drivers were eager to rack up as many laps as possible, but with over a third of the session gone, Norris found himself at the bottom of the pile in terms of both lap count and time. After adjusting his set-up back in the garage, his first attempt to set a faster lap saw him drive wide, kicking up dust and leaving him P20.

Around the halfway point, the track quietened down as teams called their drivers back into the pits, with Russell firmly in P1 with an advantage of two tenths over Verstappen. Meanwhile, Leclerc once again jumped on the radio to relay another issue with the balance of his Ferrari as he lingered just over a second adrift of the Mercedes.