The world champion Max Verstappen set the fastest lap during the Qatar Grand Prix qualifying. It was his first pole position win since the 2024 Austrian Grand Prix. George Russell finished second and Lando Norris was third.
However, Max Verstappen lost his pole position against George Russell after being hit with a one-place grid penalty for slowing down George Russell in the final few minutes of the qualifying. The incident occurred during the final minutes as Russell was doing his pole lap for the final time.
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Another Penalty for Max
Russell was ruim van te voren gewaarschuwd door z'n engineer dat hij Verstappen én Alonso naderde en dat beide langzaam reden. Vervolgens naait hij Verstappen ook nog eens luid en duidelijk een oor aan door te zeggen dat het gevaarlijk was wat Verstappen deed! Klaphark!#F1… https://t.co/6U33sCZP9X
— Jan Joost (@JanJoostF) December 1, 2024
The Dutch driver was in his slow lap after qualifying the fastest in the previous lap. But he intercepted Russell in one corner which slowed the Mercedes driver and lost some time there and couldn't clinch the pole position. Russell was also brave enough to evade a big accident there as he could have crashed behind Max Verstappen during the lap. George was very quick in the last few races starting from Brazil.
The FIA has officially announced that they will investigate and take action. Now, Max was handed a one-place grid penalty for driving unnecessarily slow ahead of the Mercedes. After the session, George Russell said, “I ended up going through the gravel all over the floor, so it felt like the floor was scraping over the kerb and through the gravel, so I hope it didn't damage it.
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Maybe that's the reason we didn't improve - I don't know, but it was a bit of a hairy one, two corners before we started the lap.” According to Formula 1 regulations, if a car is slow in a high-speed corner, it should not be on a racing line.
Max Verstappen had his best moment after the Spielberg race in Austria. But it was penalised by the stewards and was pushed to P2. Verstappen already won the World championship. McLaren, Ferrari and Red Bull are fighting for the constructors championship.
Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri already won the Sprint race after some good team man game, Ferrari is still yet to fire in the Qatar Grand Prix. McLaren are already well ahead of the two Ferrari drivers. Carlos Sainz will start P7 and Charles Leclerc will start P5 in the main race.