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Formula 1 Qatar GP

F1 Qatar GP Live Commentary and Updates – Sprint Quali & Race

Saturday's action from the 17th round of the 2023 Formula 1 season

Max Verstappen, Red Bull Racing RB19

Max Verstappen looks set to wrap up his third F1 world title during the sprint race, as he only needs to score three points or more on Saturday.

He holds a 177-point lead over team-mate Sergio Perez, with Red Bull already having clinched the constructors' title last time out in Japan.

An unexpected talking point is the Pirelli tyres which suffered sidewall damage running over the new style of kerbs used at the Qatar track on Friday.

It has triggered a change to track limits at Turn 12-13 and an additional 10-minute practice session at 2pm BST, which has delayed the start of sprint qualifying to 2:20pm BST.

The sprint race is still scheduled to start at 6:30pm BST.

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The first lap times are coming in, with Norris the early leader with a 1m 26.464s. Still no sign of Alonso, Albon, Magnussen or the two Alfa Romeo drivers.
Russell asks his Mercedes squad if he needs to do a preparation lap or get straight on with it following his out-lap. The reply is the team is still discussing. There's only eight minutes left of the session, not much time to overthink it.
The Ferrari pair break the silence as Sainz leads out Leclerc, both on mediums, followed by Perez, Norris and Stroll.
Green flag
With everybody ready, let's begin. Sprint qualifying is go!
Anyway, onwards. Sprint qualifying Q1 starts in a couple of minutes and is a 12-minute shootout to knock out the bottom five drivers.
One of this year's sprint race format tweaks was to do away with the pointless Saturday practice session, but it came back with a 10-minute vengeance today. Hello, old friend.
Verstappen finds just enough time to go off and skip over the gravel at Turn 5 before the end of the session. Red Bull may fret over his car floor given they've got under 10 minutes until the start of quali.
That's it for this session, the sprint warm-up is a success but I doubt it'll catch on. Verstappen tops it from Leclerc by nearly two-tenths of a second.
Gasly locks up into the Turn 6 hairpin and has to take to the run-off. No problems with the kerbs over there, Pierre, but thanks for checking.
Stopwatch
Verstappen leads the session with a 1m27.085s, half a second up on nearest challenger Zhou. Not that it really matters at this stage.
Verstappen is definitely one that has gone wide at Turn 12-13, while at Turn 5 Sargeant takes out the 150m brake marker board with his Williams.
All appears to be going to plan so far. But given the track limit detector doesn't kick in until sprint qualifying, it isn't so easy to pick out exactly who hasn't gelled with the track limit changes.
Magnussen leads the pack out and the majority of drivers are on a used set of soft tyres. Lap times are largely irrelevant for this session, but it is a kind of non-competitive pre-qualifying.
Green flag
As expected, the entire F1 pack heads out to make the most of this short, sharp session.
So, coming up is an unexpected 10-minute blast around the altered Qatar track, then a 10-minute pause before the start of sprint qualifying. After that normal service is resumed.

Further rule tweaks could follow for Sunday's race which would prevent a set of tyres being used for more than 20 racing laps. That'd mean all drivers needing a three-stop race. A final call will come after Pirelli and the FIA assess the situation following today's action.

Here's the full story: https://www.autosport.com/f1/news/f1-introduces-emergency-safety-measures-for-qatar-gp-amid-tyre-failure-concerns-/10529811/

Qatar pyramid kerbs

Qatar pyramid kerbs

Photo by: Alex Kalinauckas

Pirelli, together with the FIA, have acted on safety grounds, by changing the track limits at Turn 12-13 where the new kerbs are most prominent. A 10-minute familiarisation track session will take place now to get the drivers up to speed on the tweaks.
Starting at the beginning, naturally, a Pirelli tyre issue was picked up late last night when its engineers inspected the used tyres from Friday. There was sidewall damage to the tyres which was triggered by the new kerbs in Qatar.
Hello one and all! Will Verstappen be crowned 2023 F1 world champion today? It is very likely, but we have a few things to get through before then, starting with tyre talk...

By: Autosport Staff

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