F1 Sprint Qualifying Results: Disaster for Max Verstappen as Oscar Piastri surges back to pole

Max Verstappen put himself immediately on the back foot at the Qatar Grand Prix on Friday, qualifying just sixth behind his championship rivals for Saturday's sprint race.

Oscar Piastri, level on points with the Dutchman, took pole position with a new track record lap, while Lando Norris will start from third after George Russell split the McLarens.

Making matters worse for Verstappen, he was beaten for the first time all year in a qualifying or sprint qualifying by team-mate Yuki Tsunoda – for the first time in 25 sessions.

Verstappen's disappointing qualifying spot stemmed in part from a mishap on his first flying lap, going off track at Turn 4 to leave him needing to do it all in his final attempt.

Earlier, Lewis Hamilton was knocked out of qualifying for the sprint in SQ1, as his miserable first F1 season at Ferrari draws to a close.

Norris needs to outscore Verstappen and Piastri by two points this weekend to wrap up the title, with eight points on Saturday a great start to that goal.

F1 Sprint Qualifying Results: Qatar Grand Prix 2025

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.

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