F1 Qualifying Results: Qatar Grand Prix times and grid positions

McLaren star Oscar Piastri took pole position for the 2025 Qatar Grand Prix on Saturday evening in Lusail as team-mate Lando Norris took a hit in his chances of claiming the championship this weekend.

Piastri has shone in Qatar this year, taking the sprint pole and victory and now the grand prix pole, meaning the pressure is on Norris to get past his team-mate on Sunday or risk the championship fight going down to the wire in Abu Dhabi.

The penultimate qualifying session of the year took place under entirely dry conditions and saw Norris claim provisional pole position, but the McLaren driver once again backed off on his final push lap in an error which could prove fatal to his title chances.

This left the door open for Piastri, who will line up on the front row for Sunday's main event with Norris beside him.

Reigning champion Max Verstappen qualified third-fastest and will line up next to George Russell for the Qatar GP.

His team-mate Kimi Antonelli finished qualifying in P5.

Ferrari driver Lewis Hamilton was ruled out of a competitive starting position for Sunday's race as a nightmare weekend for the seven-time champion continued in Qatar when he failed to make it out of Q1.

His team-mate Charles Leclerc may have made it through to Q3 but the Monegasque driver's session was far from perfect.

Leclerc suffered a big spin in the final stage of Saturday's qualifying after dipping a tyre into the gravel at Turn 15, miraculously managing to keep his Ferrari in one piece.

The session was briefly red-flagged after Leclerc's shaky moment and a bizarre problem for Carlos Sainz where a plastic sticker got stuck under the wheel of his Williams.

The session resumed at 10pm local time (AST) but the mistake for Leclerc proved costly as the Ferrari star only managed to qualify tenth-fastest.

Here are the full results from the Qatar GP qualifying.

How does F1 Qualifying work?

The qualifying session is split into three finite windows, which provide a dramatic prelude to Sunday's race.

The bottom five drivers are eliminated at the end of Q1, with a further five eliminated after Q2.

Then, Q3 gives us a shootout between the remaining 10 drivers in the battle for positions at the front of the grid.

READ MORE: How can Lando Norris become F1 world champion at the Qatar Grand Prix?

Written by

Kerry Violet - F1 News Editor

Having graduated from the University of Sheffield with a 2:1 in Journalism in 2022, Kerry continued her pursuit of finding a full-time position in motorsport through work with the F1 Arcade in London, where she got to meet true fans of the sport and make a live grand prix watch party memorable for them. It was here that she confirmed her dream of combining her background in journalism and love of motorsport, going on to volunteer with the female-led platform Empoword Journalism. Having completed stints as a screen editor and sports editor, Kerry landed her first F1-specific editorial role with GPFans and has thoroughly enjoyed continuing to work closely with the sport ever since. The access GPFans offers Kerry has allowed her to interview big names such as Naomi Schiff and David Coulthard and given her experiences she could only have dreamt of as a young F1 fan.

View full biography

Related

More F1 news

Latest F1 news

Kimi Antonelli set to star alongside Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck in iconic Disney comic book

• Yesterday 22:30

American F1 team has a huge cost cap issue, and it's finally time to sell up

• Yesterday 21:45

Fernando Alonso and Adrian Newey hold 'deep talks' at Aston Martin HQ with future uncertain

• Yesterday 20:58

'Move over Charles' - F1 insider pitches genius idea to take team radio to a whole new level

• Yesterday 19:43

Mercedes confirm major George Russell penalty for upcoming race

• Yesterday 18:45

F1 team boss opens up on 2027 driver lineup as 'audition' held for Ferrari and McLaren stars

• Yesterday 17:29