Max Verstappen’s Qatar Quest for 3rd Title Starts With Pole

Max Verstappen, entering the 2023 Qatar Grand Prix all but guaranteed to clinch the Formula 1 World Drivers’ Championship during the weekend, began it by scoring his 10th pole of the season.

POLE FOR MAX VERSTAPPEN IN QATAR!!!💪

That's the Dutchman's 10th of the season 👏#F1 #QatarGP pic.twitter.com/DKAeMhIPIA

— Formula 1 (@F1) October 6, 2023

Lando Norris initially qualified second, but lap deletions of both of his hot laps in Q3. After that, his McLaren teammate Oscar Piastri’s time was also deleted for track limits, regulating him to sixth after qualifying fourth.

With all of that, the Mercedes teammates of George Russell and Lewis Hamilton ended up qualifying second and third respectively.

Q3

There were no incidents in the session.

Pos.	Driver	Nation	Constructor	Engine
1.	Verstappen	Netherlands	Red Bull	Honda RBPT
2.	Russell	Great Britain	Mercedes	Works Team
3.	Hamilton	Great Britain	Mercedes	Works Team
4.	Fernando Alonso	Spain	Aston Martin Aramco	Mercedes
5.	Charles Leclerc	Monaco	Ferrari	Works Team
6.	Piastri	Australia	McLaren	Mercedes
7.	Pierre Gasly	France	Alpine	Works Team
8.	Esteban Ocon	France	Alpine	Works Team
9.	Valtteri Bottas	Finland	Alfa Romeo	Ferrari
10.	Norris	Great Britain	McLaren	Mercedes

Q2

Carlos Sainz and Sergio Perez both failed to make it into Q3, Perez due to a deleted lap time from track limits. There were no incidents in this round.

Pos.	Driver	Nation	Constructor	Engine
11.	Yuki Tsunoda	Japan	AlphaTauri	Honda RBPT
12.	Sainz	Spain	Ferrari	Works Team
13.	Perez	Mexico	Red Bull	Honda RBPT
14.	Alex Albon	Thailand	Williams	Mercedes
15.	Nico Hulkenberg	Germany	Haas	Ferrari

Q1

There were no incidents in this session. The last to finish their hot lap was Albon, who nipped teammate Logan Sargeant by less than a tenth of a second. Sargeant will now go back to his home country in a couple of weeks still trying to beat Albon for the first time this season.

Lance Stroll was not happy after qualifying so far behind his teammate.

Stroll very angry getting out of his car in the garage and it appears was told by one of his trainers that he needed to go out the front to be weighed.

Stroll brushed him aside to go out the back, the trainer stepped in front of him again and Stroll appeared to push him #F1

— Chris Medland (@ChrisMedlandF1) October 6, 2023

Pos.	Driver	Nation	Constructor	Engine
16.	Sargeant	United States	Williams	Mercedes
17.	Stroll	Canada	Aston Martin Aramco	Mercedes
18.	Liam Lawson	New Zealand	AlphaTauri	Honda RBPT
19.	Kevin Magnussen	Denmark	Haas	Ferrari
20.	Zhou Guanyu	China	Alfa Romeo	Ferrari

F1 2023 Qatar Grand Prix Qualifying Results

Next up on the Qatar Grand Prix weekend will be the F1 Sprint. Following the F1 Sprint Showdown earlier in the morning, lights out for the Sprint will be at 1:30 p.m. ET. Coverage will be on ESPN News.