Liam Lawson will line up on the fifth row for tomorrow’s Qatar Grand Prix Sprint after qualifying tenth this morning at Lusail International Circuit.
Crucially, the Kiwi star lines up alongside the lead Haas of Nico Hulkenberg, and directly behind Pierre Gasly, the first Alpine.
Alpine, Haas, and RB are separated by just four points in the fight for sixth in the Constructors’ Championship, which pays an estimated nearly US $20 million more than eighth. Only the top eight finishers in a Sprint Race receive World Championship points.
Lando Norris’s first attempt in Q3 was good enough for him to claim pole, his early 1m21.012s just 0.063 seconds faster than last weekend’s winner George Russell’s final effort.
Oscar Piastri makes for two McLaren’s in the top three, going just one-tenth off his teammate, while Carlos Sainz starts as the lead Ferrari in fourth.
Charles Leclerc is fifth, next to World Champion Max Verstappen and ahead of Lewis Hamilton, Gasly, Hulkenberg, and Lawson, who completes the top ten.
Lawson initially looked to have the edge over Hulkenberg by just 0.006 seconds, only for his final attempt to be invalidated for exceeding track limits.
It was a session for tight margins for the Kiwi, who scraped into Q3 with a buffer of just 0.004 seconds over Fernando Alonso in Q2 and survived Q1 by a mere 0.013 seconds at the expense of Red Bull’s Sergio Perez.
Alonso was knocked out of Q2 in 11th, joining Alex Albon, Valtteri Bottas, Lance Stroll and Kevin Magnussen, respectively, as the eliminated drivers.
In Q1, Lawson and Albon set identical times, which relegated Perez to yet another early exit from qualifying and makes a points finish for RB, Alpine or Haas in the Sprint a very real possibility.
Yuki Tsunoda joined Perez in the bottom five and will start 17th. Esteban Ocon, Zhou Guanyu and Franco Collapinto complete the field.
The Qatar Grand Prix Sprint Race begins at 3.00 am NZST on Sunday, before Grand Prix qualifying at 7.00 am.
Qatar Grand Prix Sprint Provisional Starting Grid
| Pole | Norris |
| 2nd | Russell |
| 3rd | Piastri |
| 4th | Sainz |
| 5th | Leclerc |
| 6th | Verstappen |
| 7th | Hamilton |
| 8th | Gasly |
| 9th | Hulkenberg |
| 10th | Lawson |
| 11th | Alonso |
| 12th | Albon |
| 13th | Bottas |
| 14th | Stroll |
| 15th | Magnussen |
| 16th | Perez |
| 17th | Tsunoda |
| 18th | Ocon |
| 19th | Zhou |
| 20th | Collapinto |
Header Image: Getty Images/ Red Bull Content Pool
