Max Verstappen placed under investigation immediately after securing Qatar GP pole

Max Verstappen bounced back from a wretched Sprint race to qualify on pole for the Qatar Grand Prix.

But he faces an investigation after George Russell accused the Dutchman of impeding him. Replays appeared to show Verstappen’s Red Bull getting in the way of the Brit during a flying lap, after Russell missed out on pole by just five hundredths of a second.

The incident was noted by race control and the stewards will look into the circumstances. But, for now, Verstappen is on pole for a Grand Prix for the first time since the Austria race in June.

And it was a rather remarkable turnaround given Red Bull struggled for pace in the Sprint earlier in the day. But the changes made to their set-ups allowed them to show far better one-lap pace and Verstappen made the most to take a provisional pole, pending the outcome of the investigation

Sergio Perez safely navigated Q1 this time after qualifying down in 16th for the Sprint a day earlier. His bad luck seemed to go to Nico Hulkenberg instead as the Haas driver ran out of battery during his final push lap and didn’t have the pace he needed to make it out of the bottom five as a result.

He was still quicker than other two drivers namely Franco Colapinto and Esteban Ocon who were ranked 19 th and 20 th on this terrible night that two drivers who would have expected something much better at least. The others rounded off by failure at the first round were Liam Lawson and Alex Albon.

Getting both drivers out of Q1 has to be considered another groundbreaking performance for Sauber who have been abysmal in qualifying all year long and is one of the reasons why they have found themselves pointless in 2024. This time only Valtteri Bottas survived an early elimination while Zhou Guanyu also did so.

But they did not disappoint in Q 2 as well with competitive efforts done by them on the balance sheets. It was not enough for top 10 but they would be happy to finish 12th and 13th having beaten Yuki Tsunoda and Lance Stroll, and Zhou will have satisfaction to have beaten his teammate.

Perez made Q2 to just make the Top 10 by one hundredth and actually just beat Pierre Gasly into the final ten. And after being fighting for speed in the Sprint earlier in the day, Verstappen was also gaining speed and looked ready for the pole.

Russell was leading the timesheets but the Dutchman managed only enough on his last lap to overtake the Mercedes man. They are expected to start ahead of the two McLarens while Lewis Hamilton qualified only sixth.