F1 Qatar GP Live Commentary and Updates - Qualifying

Perez has had a strange moment dipping into the gravel at Turn 4, but wasn't on a push lap - so the inevitable laptime deletion won't hurt him too much. A weird one, that.

Alonso has his time deleted and so heads to the pits rather than fruitlessly complete it. Can he muscle in on the top 10? As things stand, he's currently at the bottom of the pile with Bottas, Zhou, Tsunoda and Stroll also facing Q2 elimination. 

After a nightmare sprint event, Perez is going well and has outpaced both Ferraris so far to sit fifth as things stand.

But Verstappen immediately ducks underneath that with a 1m21.085s. Who will be the first driver to dip under 81 seconds?

Russell has begun Q2 in the same vein he ended Q1. He currently heads the times on a 1m21.161s, a tenth under his earlier benchmark. 

Lawson isn't happy with Alonso and says the Spaniard purposefully slowed up through Turns 9 and 10 when he aborted his lap. "It just sucks man," he says. It was actually Stroll, his engineer points out.

Top spot went to Russell by 0.037s over Leclerc. Sainz took third, with Norris three tenths in arrears in fourth after his Turn 6 track limits offence struck off his best time. Verstappen meanwhile was fifth, making it four different constructors in the top five. This season certainly hasn't disappointed in the variety stakes.

Joining Albon, Lawson and Hulkenberg on the sidelines for Q2 are Colapinto and Ocon, both of whom also fell in SQ1 yesterday.

Tsunoda just saved himself at the end of Q1 and progresses by 0.026s over Albon. Lawson is just 0.047s shy of reaching Q2 while Hulkenberg is also out by less than a tenth, the Haas driver 0.078s in arrears. But it is only good enough for 18th on the grid after another frenetic Q1.

Lawson can't improve and is out, but Tsunoda improves to dump out Albon!

Albon improves and goes 15th, pushing Lawson into the drop zone for now.

Magnussen improves to ninth, which might just see him through.

Lawson is the man on the bubble now, with Bottas also peering over his shoulder in 14th having failed to improve last time around.

Zhou now gets his head down and muscles into 11th spot. Will that see him into Q2? Tsunoda has also been shuffled into the bottom five, along with Hulkenberg, Albon, Colapinto and Ocon.

Magnussen is currently in and vaults up to P12, but Hulkenberg is 0.022s shy of Tsunoda - who is on the bubble in 15th.

Magnussen has had another lap deleted, which hasn't helped his cause. He and Hulkenberg are going for a lap now - can they rescue themselves?

Hulkenberg after his sprint race heroics to beat Verstappen to seventh is currently in danger of Q1 elimination here. He's joined in the drop zone as things stand by team-mate Magnussen, Zhou, Colapinto and Ocon.

Gasly belatedly clocks in fifth fastest to slot in behind Verstappen. What can Ocon do with his first timed effort? It's somewhat less impressive and leaves him bringing up the rear in 20th.

Norris punches in a lap to go 0.059s shy of Russell's benchmark, with Alonso up in third for Aston Martin after going purple in the first sector.

Stroll, Colapinto and Albon have all joined Magnussen in having times deleted for track limits. Curiosly, neither of the Alpine drivers has yet set a representative time.

Russell now dislodges Verstappen from the top spot with a 1m21.519s, with Norris third and Piastri fourth. 

The times are tumbling all the time, with Verstappen now quickest on a 1m21.713s. Already, that's inching towards the best lap from sprint qualifying yesterday.

Kevin Magnussen's opening gambit for Haas is struck off due to track limits at Turn 1. He'll have to go again.

We have some times on the board. Valtteri Bottas, seemingly set to return to Mercedes in a reserve capacity, is the fastest so far.

He's not taking part in this session of course, but those with one eye already on 2025 may be interested to clock that future Haas racer Oliver Bearman took his third victory of a mixed season in Formula 2 earlier this evening. He passed Red Bull junior Isack Hadjar, who ultimately finished fourth after a spin, in the partially-reversed grid sprint race. You can read the full report from that race courtesy of Sam Hall, here. 

Drivers are clambering into their cockpits ready for Q1 to get under way.

You'll be shocked to learn that there's a zero per cent chance of rain for qualifying. Track temperature is 21.9 °C, a shade over the ambient temp of 19.0 °C.

Based on the times in sprint qualifying, lap times have improved this year by 3.442 seconds compared to last year. You can expect that with more rubber down, yesterday's 1m21.012s benchmark from Norris will be laid to waste too. For those curious about why the cars are going so much faster here than 12 months ago, then click here for an explainer from Jonathan Noble and wonder no more.

The sprint was already looking to be a bit of a slog for Perez after falling in SQ1. Perhaps wisely, Red Bull looked at the long game and made set-up tweaks that meant he would have to start from the pitlane, but might give him a better indication of where his problems lay ahead of qualifying. But being mugged away from the lights by fellow pitlane starter Franco Colapinto did not impress team boss Christian Horner, as you can read here.

One team that will need a big turnaround from the sprint to contend for pole is Red Bull. Max Verstappen bemoaned a lack of grip that left him comparing his RB20 to a rally car. He struggled to eighth in the sprint, unable to close down Nico Hulkenberg, whose two points scored for Haas could be vital in the fight for sixth in the constructors' standings. Sergio Perez meanwhile had a nightmare sprint, as we shall now detail.

Carlos Sainz sat fourth throughout the sprint race, ahead of Ferrari team-mate Charles Leclerc. As a result, McLaren has extended its advantage in the constructors' championship fight to 30 points, so it will be crucial for Ferrari to put on a good show tonight and get back into the mix.

Norris did control proceedings throughout the sprint race, before handing victory to Piastri at the final corner. But Piastri had to keep his elbows very wide indeed to hold Russell at bay, with the Briton vocal in his displeasure over the radio at what he saw as late moves. If he'd been able to get through on Piastri, it would have been very interesting indeed to see if he could have taken the fight to Norris.

Lando Norris seized the top spot yesterday in sprint qualifying, but it was a close-run thing. He only beat George Russell to the top spot by 0.063s. Which is, well, close.

Hello and welcome to Autosport's live text coverage of qualifying for Formula 1's Qatar Grand Prix. For the penultimate time in 2024, we're getting ready to set the grid and things look once again to be fairly unpredictable at the sharp end.