Max Verstappen claimed a surprise pole position at the F1 Qatar Grand Prix but faces an investigation for an incident with George Russell.
After a difficult start to the weekend, it marked a massive turnaround from Red Bull as Verstappen pipped Russell to his first pole since the Austrian Grand Prix in June by just 0.055s.
However, Verstappen will be investigated after qualifying for failing to obey the maximum delta time. Russell complained he was blocked by the four-time world champion, labelling his driving “super dangerous”.
Verstappen’s teammate Sergio Perez was reprimanded for the same offence on Friday in Qatar.
Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri locked out the second row of the grid in third and fourth as McLaren remain well positioned ahead of their first shot to win the constructors’ championship.
Charles Leclerc was fifth ahead of future Ferrari teammate Lewis Hamilton, who split the Scuderia pair by edging out Carlos Sainz to sixth. The seven-time world champion ended up four-tenths adrift of Mercedes teammate George Russell 24 hours after admitting he is “definitely not fast anymore”.
Aston Martin’s Fernando Alonso, Perez and Haas’ Kevin Magnussen completed the rest of the top-10.
Alpine’s Pierre Gasly was a frustrated 11th after missing out on a spot in Q3 by just 0.012s, having narrowly outpaced the Sauber duo of Zhou Guanyu and Valtteri Bottas who were 12th and 13th.
Yuki Tsunoda was 15th, ahead of Alex Albon’s Williams, RB teammate Liam Lawson’s RB and Nico Hulkenberg, who could only manage a time good enough for 18th after a strong sprint showing.
Franco Colapinto took 19th in the older-spec Williams following his recent string of heavy crashes, while Esteban Ocon was slowest of all in 20th with a big disparity between the Alpine drivers.