F1 Qatar Grand Prix: 6 winners and 4 losers from qualifying

Photo by Clive Rose/Getty Images

A big night for Mercedes and more struggles for Sergio Pérez

Qualifying for the Qatar Grand Prix is in the books.

Who were the big winners, and who still has some work to do in Sunday’s Grand Prix?

Let’s dive in straight away.

Winner: Max Verstappen

Another qualifying session, another pole position. Ho hum.

However, this gives Verstappen quite the safety net. He needs just three points to clinch his third-straight title, and he can likely pick those up in the F1 Sprint race on Saturday.

But, if something disastrous happens on Saturday and he cannot come away with those needed points, he will be in great position Sunday to get the job done.

Loser: Liam Lawson

In what is likely his final F1 race for the 2023 season, Liam Lawson will have to fight through the field if he is to come away with points.

Lawson managed just a P18 in qualifying on Friday, behind teammate Yuki Tsunoda who finished in 13th position to advance to Q2.

Still, Lawson should take heart in what he has done since replacing an injured Daniel Ricciardo at AlphaTauri. Not only has Lawson managed to secure points within his first few F1 starts, but he reportedly has an inside track to a seat in 2025, despite the recent news he would be returning to a reserve role for 2024.

Something tells me Friday’s qualifying session will soon be forgotten.

Winners: Mercedes

Photo by Clive Rose/Getty Images

In the battle between Mercedes and Ferrari for second, consider the state of play “Advantage, Mercedes.”

Carlos Sainz Jr. was eliminated in Q2, and is slated to start the Grand Prix in 13th place. As for Charles Leclerc, while he managed to advance to Q3, he could only manage a sixth-place finish.

Then there is the Mercedes duo. Lewis Hamilton challenged for pole, and actually posted the best time during Q2. While he could not duplicate that in Q3, he finished fifth, and then was bumped up into P4 when Lando Norris saw the lap that put him into P2 deleted for exceeding track limits.

He was then bumped up again when Oscar Piastri saw a lap time of his own deleted, pushing Hamilton into P3.

As for George Russell, he’ll start alongside Verstappen, as he finished third, and was bumped up to second following Norris’s lap time being deleted.

There is obviously a long way to go between now and the end of the season, but with just 20 points separating Mercedes and Ferrari in the battle for second, every point counts. Friday’s qualifying session gives the Silver Arrows a great chance to hold — if not build on — their current lead.

Loser: Lance Stroll

For the fourth race in a row, Lance Stroll is out in Q1.

Stroll managed just a P17 during the first portion of qualifying, and was one of the drivers who saw a lap time deleted due to exceeding track limits. You could also tell that frustration from Stroll might be boiling over. F1TV cameras caught Stroll as he climbed out of his AMR23, as he seemed to brush away a crew member as he stormed out of the garage.

Stroll is under a tremendous amount of pressure at Aston Martin. After the team began the year in tremendous fashion, sitting behind only Red Bull in the Constructors’ standings, they now find themselves in a fight to hold on to fourth place, with a hard-charging McLaren squad coming on fast.

As for Stroll, he has not finished in the points since the Belgian Grand Prix at the end of July. If Aston Martin is to hold off McLaren — which looks like a longshot given how the two teams are performing at the moment — they will need something more from Stroll.

Winners: Alpine

This has been a tumultuous season for Alpine, both on and off the track, but Friday was a solid result for the team. Alpine put both Esteban Ocon and Pierre Gasly into Q3, and they will see Ocon start in P7, and Gasly in P8, in the Grand Prix on Sunday.

That gives the outfit a very good chance at a double-points result in the Grand Prix.

Alpine certainly seems locked into a sixth-place finish in the Constructors’ Championship. They trail McLaren by 88 points in the standings, and sit 63 points ahead of Williams. But finishing the season strong is atop their to-do list, and Friday’s qualifying session will go a long way towards achieving that goal.

Loser: Logan Sargeant

As the only driver still unsure of his status for 2024, Logan Sargeant needs to deliver for Williams down the stretch.

However, he found his qualifying session come to an end at the death, with teammate Alexander Albon nipping him for the final spot in Q2 just as Q1 came to a close.

Williams Team Principal James Vowles has preached patience with Sargeant, including recently when he recorded a video giving the American rookie a massive vote of confidence. However, Vowles also noted that the rookie does have clear markers he needs to hit if he is going to secure his seat for 2024.

One wonders if today’s elimination in Q1 satisfies one of those markers.

Winner: Fernando Alonso

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As things sit right now, if Aston Martin is going to hold off McLaren for fourth place in the Constructors’ Championship, Fernando Alonso is going to have to drag them to the finish line.

Friday, then, was a very good night for him in Qatar.

After the laps were finished and the dust had settled, Alonso found himself in P4, which gives him a very good chance at banking some much-needed points for Aston Martin. When you add in the fact that he will start ahead of both McLarens? There is a chance that he actually manages to extend Aston Martin’s current advantage over McLaren on Sunday.

Saturday offers McLaren some chances to cut into that lead, but this was a big result for Alonso and, by extension, Aston Martin.

Loser: Sergio Pérez

Qualifying struggles has been the story of Sergio Pérez’s season, including a stretch earlier in the year where he failed to advance to Q3 in five-straight races.

He missed out on Q3 again Friday, when a lap time was deleted in Q2 during a frenetic finish, seeing him qualify in P13.

All of this comes as Pérez’s future with Red Bull remains one of the simmering storylines around F1. He is under contract with the team through next season, but whether he remains with Red Bull for 2025 and beyond continues to come into question. Given the strength of the RB19 this year, many view Q3 as a “minimum” result — and Verstappen is among those who look at things that way — but again, Pérez cannot get the RB19 into Q3.

Certainly Pérez can make up some ground in the Grand Prix Sunday, and he also has a Sprint race tomorrow to bank some points. But could a true fight for second in the Drivers’ now be underway?

With struggles like this, he may very well have a fight on his hands.

Winner: Valtteri Bottas

Lost in all the drama regarding track limits? A strong performance from Valtteri Bottas.

The Alfa Romeo driver pushed into Q3, and finished in ninth place. It was his first Q3 since the Hungarian Grand Prix in July, and comes at a time when he and Alfa Romeo needed a solid result.

It remains to be seen if Bottas will have the kind of race pace he’ll need to finish in the points. After all, he’ll have Norris, Pérez, and Sainz all starting behind him, three drivers who seem to have a lot of pace right now. But even if he slides out of the points, this was a great result for him.

Winners: Track limits

As we saw in Austria, track limits got the better of many drivers on Friday.

Lando Norris and Oscar Piastri certainly come to mind. Norris finished second in Q3, but was dropped to P10 after that lap was deleted for exceeding track limits. Piastri believed he was starting third — and was in the middle of his trackside interview following qualifying — when he was told that his lap time had been deleted, dropping him down to sixth.

But they were not alone. We talked about some of the drivers who endured a similar result, such as Stroll and Pérez, and there were others who had lap times deleted for exceeding track limits during qualifying.

With another qualifying session ahead, coupled with both the Sprint race and the Grand Prix itself, we have probably not heard the last from track limits this weekend.