McLaren rebounded from the blow of their double disqualification in Las Vegas by leading the only practice session at Losail International Circuit.

The two MCL39s were the only cars to dip beneath the 81-second barrier in the single hour of running before qualifying for the sprint race later today.

The pair took a while to post competitive times early in the session, when the cars took to the track on the hard tyre compound. Lando Norris eventually worked his way up to the fourth-fastest time.

Once the cars switched to soft tyres in the final minutes of the session, the McLarens appeared to come alive. Norris went fastest initially, lapping the 16-turn course in 1’20.982. Piastri was almost four tenths of a second slower than that to begin with, but on his subsequent run chipped five hundredths of a second off Norris’s best time.

Norris ran wide onto the gravel trap at the final corner on his next run, scuppering his chance of beating Piastri’s time. He was far from the only driver to encounter such a problem as drivers got to grips with the high-speed track.

Verstappen was second-fastest behind George Russell when the drivers ran the hard tyres. However he pitted soon after his first run on softs which left him half a second off Norris at the time. The Red Bull driver had various complaints about his car’s damping and power unit clipping, and was infuriated to encounter Pierre Gasly’s Alpine on a slow lap, complaining he’d been held up by the “blind idiot.”

Fernando Alonso, Carlos Sainz Jnr and Isack Hadjar separated Verstappen from the McLaren drivers at the end of the session. Alexander Albon took seventh in a surprisingly strong session for Williams, who did not rate their chances at this track.

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Albon led four drivers covered by less than a tenth of a second. Charles Leclerc endured a frustrating session in his Ferrari, complaining repeatedly about the poor feedback from his power steering. A clean final lap left him only eighth, four places ahead of his team mate.

Following Russell’s strong showing on the hard tyres, he was nowhere on the softs, and fell to 14th place. His team mate Andrea Kimi Antonelli made it into the top 10 behind Lance Stroll’s Aston Martin.

2025 Qatar Grand Prix first practice result

P. # Driver Team Model Time Gap Laps
1 81 Oscar Piastri McLaren-Mercedes MCL39 1’20.924 29
2 4 Lando Norris McLaren-Mercedes MCL39 1’20.982 0.058 28
3 14 Fernando Alonso Aston Martin-Mercedes AMR25 1’21.310 0.386 26
4 55 Carlos Sainz Jnr Williams-Mercedes FW47 1’21.404 0.480 20
5 6 Isack Hadjar Racing Bulls-Honda RBPT 02 1’21.503 0.579 30
6 1 Max Verstappen Red Bull-Honda RBPT RB21 1’21.504 0.580 27
7 23 Alexander Albon Williams-Mercedes FW47 1’21.609 0.685 29
8 16 Charles Leclerc Ferrari SF-25 1’21.668 0.744 31
9 18 Lance Stroll Aston Martin-Mercedes AMR25 1’21.669 0.745 26
10 12 Andrea Kimi Antonelli Mercedes W16 1’21.698 0.774 32
11 27 Nico Hulkenberg Sauber-Ferrari C45 1’21.783 0.859 23
12 44 Lewis Hamilton Ferrari SF-25 1’21.794 0.870 28
13 22 Yuki Tsunoda Red Bull-Honda RBPT RB21 1’21.796 0.872 28
14 63 George Russell Mercedes W16 1’21.824 0.900 33
15 87 Oliver Bearman Haas-Ferrari VF-25 1’21.926 1.002 26
16 5 Gabriel Bortoleto Sauber-Ferrari C45 1’21.926 1.002 29
17 31 Esteban Ocon Haas-Ferrari VF-25 1’22.096 1.172 30
18 10 Pierre Gasly Alpine-Renault A525 1’22.424 1.500 25
19 30 Liam Lawson Racing Bulls-Honda RBPT 02 1’22.562 1.638 30
20 43 Franco Colapinto Alpine-Renault A525 1’23.529 2.605 26

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2025 Qatar Grand Prix

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