- Stewards drop Verstappen from pole to second place
- Russell inherits top slot for Mercedes
- McLaren qualify ahead of title rivals Ferrari
DOHA — Mercedes’s George Russell was promoted to pole position at the Qatar Grand Prix on Saturday after stewards gave Red Bull’s Max Verstappen a one-place grid drop for driving unnecessarily slowly during qualifying.
Quadruple world champion Verstappen had celebrated a first pole in five months but then faced an investigation for an incident with Russell that the Briton described as “super-dangerous”.
Stewards said the case was complicated but agreed that Verstappen, who clinched his fourth title in a row in Las Vegas last weekend, was going too slow on a cool down lap when Russell suddenly came up behind him.
“Unusually, this incident occurred when neither car was on a push lap,” they said in a statement. “Had Car 63 (Russell) been on a push lap, the penalty would have most likely been the usual three-grid position.
“However in mitigation of penalty, it was obvious that the driver of Car 63 had clear visibility of Car 1 (Verstappen).”
The constructors’ title could be won in Sunday’s race, with leaders McLaren qualifying both their cars ahead of closest rivals Ferrari.
McLaren’s Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri qualified third and fourth respectively after taking maximum points from the sprint to send the team 30 points clear in their chase for a first constructors’ title in 26 years.
Ferrari’s Charles Leclerc will start fifth with team mate Carlos Sainz seventh.
Verstappen had lapped with a best time of one minute 20.520 seconds for what would have been his first pole since Austria at the end of June,and ninth of the year.
“That was amazing, the turnaround. Great job guys,” he said over the radio after crossing the line 0.055 quicker than Russell.
Red Bull make changes
Verstappen had finished only eighth in Saturday’s sprint with a lack of balance and grip.
Team boss Christian Horner said Red Bull had changed “pretty much everything we could change” to put the car in a better performance window.
Seven-times world champion Lewis Hamilton qualified sixth for Mercedes, 0.436 of a second off Russell’s time, with Fernando Alonso eighth for Aston Martin and Verstappen’s struggling team mate Sergio Perez ninth.
Kevin Magnussen completed the top 10 on the grid for Haas, who are fighting a midfield battle for sixth place with Renault-owned Alpine and Red Bull’s RB.
Piastri had led Norris in the sprint after swapping places within sight of the finish as payback for the Australian gifting victory to the Briton in Brazil to help his drivers’ championship chances.
“Not the position we were hoping for after yesterday and today but the maximum we could do,” Norris, who made a mistake at turn five on his first effort in the final phase, said of his grid position for Sunday.
“The lap was pretty good. I was pretty happy with it but just not quick enough compared to the others.
“I don’t think we are as quick as the Mercedes, and Red Bull showed how much they improved since yesterday, so plenty of opportunity for everyone.”
“It was a surprise for us to be so close to McLaren but a surprise that Red Bull and Mercedes were so strong,” said Leclerc.
Sainz was summoned to the stewards after the session for an unsafe release from the Ferrari garage into Hamilton’s path, with the team fined 5,000 euros ($5,287).
($1 = 0.9456 euros)
—Reporting by Alan Baldwin, editing by Clare Fallon and Pritha Sarkar
