Verstappen fastest in Qatar Grand Prix practice

Verstappen set a best time of one minute 27.428 seconds, 0.334 quicker than Ferrari's Carlos Sainz, in a session with desert sand blown onto the track by swirling and gusting winds

Published - October 06, 2023 09:34 pm IST - DOHA

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen during practice for Qatar Grand Prix at Lusail International Circuit on October 6, 2023.

Red Bull’s Max Verstappen during practice for Qatar Grand Prix at Lusail International Circuit on October 6, 2023. | Photo Credit: Reuters

Max Verstappen lapped fastest on Friday in the only practice session for a Qatar Grand Prix weekend set to crown him a triple Formula One world champion.

The weekend is run to a sprint format, with a 100km race on Saturday evening giving the Red Bull driver a first chance to secure the title at the Lusail circuit before Sunday's main event.

Verstappen set a best time of one minute 27.428 seconds, 0.334 quicker than Ferrari's Carlos Sainz, in a session with desert sand blown onto the track by swirling and gusting winds as the sun set.

Ferrari's Charles Leclerc was third fastest with Aston Martin's Fernando Alonso fourth, after being top with four minutes to go, and Red Bull's Sergio Perez fifth.

Perez is the only driver other than Verstappen mathematically in title contention but the Mexican is 177 points adrift with six rounds remaining and a maximum of 180 points to be won.

The session was run in track temperatures of around 38 degrees Celsius whereas qualifying for Sunday's night race will be considerably cooler.

"It’s very warm and then of course it cools down a bit. Whatever you do in FP1 (practice) it’s still not clear for qualifying, it makes it a lot harder and a bit of a gamble," Verstappen told reporters earlier.

"For me it’s a bit of a shame because I think on this track it would be amazing to have a few (sessions) to really set up the car nicely and be fully comfortable going into qualifying for everyone to really get the best out of it."

Saturday is all about the sprint, with a separate 'shoot out' to decide the grid positions for that race.

Mercedes' Lewis Hamilton, the winner when Qatar last hosted a race in 2021, was only 13th in practice this time with team mate George Russell eighth.

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.